A little trip back to myself by Angel Young

 

OMG the winter has just been so long here this year! Just grey skies, rain, cold. So a little trip to Berlin was just the thing. Four days visiting my friend. Mind you it hadn't been better there, but I timed by visit with the start of spring - I brought the sunshine with me :). 

You know I hadn't quite realised how tired and worn down I was. It's so easy to get into that place unwittingly isn't it? To let day to day life overwhelm everything else, even those little breathing spaces where you can pause. 

What was great about this trip was its lovely balance between seeing my friend and having some "artist date" time on the days my friend was working. It was so great to wander the streets with my camera just exploring the city. I didn't really feel the need to go in the tourist attractions. It was enough to be outdoors and reconnecting with my creativity again.

After a little dither, I decided I would go and see the Bauhaus Gallery. If you're not familiar with this it's a school which ran through the 1920s & 30s. It was a melting pot of innovation in its day, and when war came its designs were scattered to the winds, and it's tenets run right through into modern design.

But, wow did it spark for me! The weaving was exquisitely coloured and patterned; the pottery had an edge to it; the copper sculpture twisted; the chairs were - well classic Bauhaus! But most importantly for me were those little colour test grids, those colour mixing experiments they converted into carpets and fabrics and painting - a new approach to design. They just spoke to me! Suddenly I could see how you could extrapolate that into my printmaking. These simple colours painted some 90 years ago still had the power to spark the imagination. I got home and I've started those old colour mixing experiments. It feels new and exciting. 

A little investment of time and then all that lovely creativity can rush in. Where will you take an artists date and breath some fresh air into your creativity?

Angel lives in the UK and a rediscovering her paintbox this month.