It is a rare occasion that I have a few days free to sit and contemplate my life and where I want to go with it. The word 'sit' doesn't sit happily with me. Excuse the pun.

When you have been through a potentially life-changing illness, it changes your whole attitude to life. I often hear people saying retiring is a winding-down time, and their intentions are a mix of TV and gardening with the occasional jigsaw. That was my complete nightmare. At first, retirement after forty-plus years in school was a very scary prospect for me. Then a light bulb moment lit up my future, and I had to fill every waking moment, keeping my brain active and enjoying every aspect of the art world I had neglected due to work and other commitments. My art world!! Not only did I focus on my paintings, etc., but I also decided to continue showcasing and promoting children's and young people's art. I was on a mission, which I am pleased to say I am still on that journey ten years after that dreaded 'retirement' day.

Whilst trying to find a new location/gallery for the annual children's/young people's art exhibition and sending endless submissions to organisations begging for funding, I have spent rare moments sitting in the sunshine with a coffee, mulling over what the future holds for these young artists and for our grandchildren. I watched them at the weekend innocently crafting at the kitchen table and enjoying an egg hunt in the garden and wondered what on earth their future would hold. The news presents a world collapsing under violence, bad leadership and global warming ignorance. Yet somewhere amongst all this negativity we must have hope.

Ammar's 'slide in the park' 4yrs

Vincent's 'Kandinsky' 10yrs

Every minute of childhood is crucial and must be filled with happy memories to recall and look back on when things may get tough. Children won’t remember the algebra lesson or the historical dates they learnt in history as the key moments from their childhood.

Hopefully they will laugh about the time we painted portraits of members of staff using chocolate and got into trouble for letting them (and me, I have to say) lick the bowl out. Health and safety rules, Uhu. Or the time we rolled a car tyre around the classroom covered in paint to experiment with pattern making. Art is not all about sitting at a desk with an A4 piece of paper and a pencil.

There is also the misconception that a person can never make a career out of art. I was told that by the headmistress at my grammar school in the early 60s. Granted, she was partly right, as all I wanted to do was go to art school, not forge a future. At sixteen, who knows what they want to do for the rest of their lives? I'm nearly 78 and still not sure. LOL.

I give my private tuition students a chance to look outside the box (sorry, I hate that expression, but it is appropriate here) and experiment with maybe what is normally not thought of as art. For example, one student did a project on advertising. She designed fashion accessories, made beads from clay and created a poster with her 'company name'.

Another student went down a similar route by designing her own animal print fabric and used fabric printing to turn it into a summer dress example.

The images today show how pattern and graphic art could easily lead to careers in graphic design and could be applied to the more technical world of the future.

The younger generation have brains like sponges. They can absorb information and facts; therefore, please help me make their heads full of excitement. fun experiences to see them safely through into the intrepid world of adulthood.



Lynne Dobson, Yorkshire Artist. purplegrandma48@gmail.com