The abundant joy of play!!!

On Sunday we both went to the studio because we thought it would be a good idea to leave planning, unpacking, sorting and all of that hoo-ha behind for a day.

And we were right!

I had no plans; no big jobs to do; nothing with a timeline so I set about having a play.

I went looking for old prints to cut out as I had a hankering for pebble shapes.  I came across a stack of gel prints from I don't know when - 2013 maybe?? - which I had never really known what to do with.

So I turned them over and drew pebble shapes on the back and set about cutting.

Cutting is so meditative. It is slow and you have to focus.  I went away away away and it was delightful.

The pebbles and the shapes of pebbles.

I spent the day drawing and cutting, drawing and cutting and thorough enjoyed myself.  In the last hour or so I played with ideas about how to use them.

I was imagining printing words and layering pebbles or pebble cut-outs; you just never know when you begin.

And then I popped a cut out over a print I hadn't yet cut and I went woooooooo!

Oh my. And off I went.  No spare scrap of paper was safe from the play.

Now I know that children have been playing with cut outs and layering since the dawn of kindergarten, but it was such a totally exciting and enthralling discovery.

Working my way through colour combinations, pondering the loveliest of questions "what if...?"

Grabbing some black paper and adding the pebbles. It just went on and on!

I don't really know that I finished up anywhere, but my glory I had so much fun.

And then I stacked the cut-outs on top of each other to pack away for next time, and of course, loved that as well!

If ever need to remind myself of the joy, the benefit, the absolute bliss of playing in the studio, I shall refer myself to this post and recall the day I spent cutting pebbles.