Kim Barnes's Blog

This week i got to catch up with some lovely friends and there child and had a lovely day out at Amazon World here on the Isle of Wight. We spent the day wondering around looking at the wondrous animals from Armadillos running around in the dark to flamingos sleeping on one leg. I have been there many times in my life and i still notice different animals and all of the unusual things they do each time. After seeing all of the animals that are full of life and playing around in their cages just before you leave there is a big display on extinction, and with it an enormous statue of a Dodo. You grow up hearing about Dodos as an animal that is extinct, i think this is purely because of Alice in Wonderland. It got me thinking about how amazed i was at seeing all of the animals i could see up close and the little things i noticed, that imagine if you ever got a chance to see a real live Dodo...

The night sky holds magic and secrets that are still to be discovered, when you find yourself gazing up into the sky who knows what you are truly seeing. If you look close enough, and perhaps squint, you might see the night delivery owls. These owls deliver packages of great importance but you have to be out with your parcel or letter at the exact time they are flying past, blink and you might miss them...

Who knows who you could meet when your out and about on your travels. Yesterday Ellie found and elephant and she played with her all day. When it was time to go home Ellie knew her mother would be angry if she took her friend home, so together they snuck back into her house and began to hunt around the house for things that she could use to disguise the elephant. Her mother didn't notice, the disguise had worked! Ellie wanted other children who had found new friends to be able to play with them all day, even when it got dark, so she has put together a few tips..Step 1: Sneak your friend into a colourful room (More distractions)Step 2: Collect paper and paint and anything that will hep cover up. A good material is paper as you can colour it to match the wall behind it. Step 3: GET CREATIVE. The colourful the better.Step 4: Clean up any evidence of making a disguise. So it doesn't raise suspicion.Step 5: PLAY!

I don't know why but when i see a deep purple i immediately think of magic, moons and stars. What a better fit for this week with the colour collective and the beautiful violet shade. It soon became apparent that i was doodling a scene of Harry Potter and the invisibility cloak so i embraced this fact and ran with it. With such a busy time at work at the moment i wanted to just go a bit crazy and take a bit of time to experiment and before i knew it i had a library scene with the secret map to the chamber of secret. When it came to colour, how could i not add in the famous Gryffindor colours.

So this week the sun has finally started to break through the clouds and its like summer is beginning to bloom. So this week for my colour collective i thought what better way to celebrate the colour of summer by showing them intertwining in one bright image. This is how i imagine summer magically spreads across the beautiful hills, by someone sewing it. Happy Summer!!!

This month i found out that it was inventors month and as I'm really enjoying creating quirky characters at the moment i thought what better than to come up with a little inventor of my own. All i could think of whilst i was doodling characters was Beauty and the Beast and Belle's dad creating some new fangled invention. And so here he is, little Maurice. (Psst... This is part of a bigger piece, but you'll have to wait and see)

I moved back to the Isle of Wight the end of last year and ive been desperate to take a little bit of time out and squeeze in going back to my favourite places growing up, i havent been able to take much time off but i managed a quick drive to my favourite beach the other evening, The Duver, if you ever come to the island it is definitely a hidden gem that you need to visit.Down some winding roads and nestled in a quiet bay is a beach that has grassy hills and a little lake and a beautiful view out to the sea. I loved escaping there when i was younger. i used to spend long summer evenings there having BBQs with my family and playing in the sea, and also running along the sandy grassy hills and playing games.When i saw the colour Serenity for this weeks Colour Collective i could only think if these peaceful summer memories. I decided to use my favourite place as inspitarion as it perfectly described how i used to feel. A little boy fishing i thought would sum up this peaceful feeling and so he is not lonely his imaginary friends has come along so he can catch his fish. Of course when you go fishing you have to take a picnic...

This week, i have decided requires a giant apple pie...It has been such a busy month with work at the moment that all i want to do this evening is curl up and eat some warm apple pie and ice cream, what better way todo this than to eat a gigantic pie, but after thinking about it for a little while if i did indeed want a REALLY BIG PIE then it would require a really big kitchen, so here we have a girl working away in a giant kitchen in order to bake me a GIANT apple pie. If only it was real...

It's down memory lane this week with the colour collective and the colour of deep lilac.When i was younger me and my brother used to go up to the lane and catch butterflies, in a little cardboard box that was filled with grass and covered in coloured pencil scribblings and the front would be cut out of it and replaced with clingfilm, so we could see the beautiful butterfly patterns and colours, we would spend our summer days doing this and then blackberry picking before letting the butterflies go early in the evening before we went home...

This week my other halfs mother had unearthed her vintage Singer sewing machine and it was standing proudly in the kitchen awaiting its repair, as it hadnt been used in many years in was in need of some TLC and a bit of magic to make it work again. This sparked my idea for this weeks colour collective over on twitter and whilst gazing at it, all i could see was this gorgeous rose quartz gown. With the idea of magic in rhe air i sat down at my cintiq and began sketching and before i knew it i had the image of a young girl making her own dreams come true and sewing her own dress in time for the ball...