The last few days have seen me pondering the whole christmas cheer thing
I am a bit of a boots and all girl when it comes to Christmas usually
the cookbooks come out early and complex and in depth menu planning commences
which is then followed by me cooking the same things as usual of course
the decorations go up, present lists are drawn up and all the bits and bobs get put out
after all I like my Christmas to be served with a nice big old helping of kitch
no colour coordinated, military operation here
we have a crooked tree and weird and wonderful singing and moving animatronic things
we live in a mish mash of dodgy decorations and slightly sad strings of lights hung at a height that could take off your head if you aren't careful
which I can't tease Sinus about because it was just recent history where Phants and I ended up putting scorch marks on the ceiling of the dining room after our attempts to create a ceiling of fairy lights... turns out you can have too many fairy lights... who knew right
but this year things haven't felt quite Christmassy
despite the fun challenge of a Christmas light obstacle course to get to the front gate
So I decided to attempt to paint myself into some Christmas cheer
and every day has been all about the seasonal themed sketch to warm up
which saw me painting up some baubles the other day
followed by a deer head with some gold bits for lights
and it was mildly working... the first stirrings of humming carols started to emerge
and then I got an email suggesting it might feel a bit more Christmassy if I used Christmas colours because otherwise baubles just looked like balls with knobs on them
now I don't know about you but if you find your balls are bright colours and have knobs on them then you should get to the doc pronto because that just doesn't seem right
but that health warning aside it got me thinking
The whole red and green thing does my head in a touch
and I have used it on occasion but it isn't my favourite pairing
and while I can go the white and icy blue as a great colour combo at any time
it just doesn't scream Christmas to me
for me Christmas has a whole other colour palette
To me Christmas isn't about red and green and snow scenes
I only see red and green together when I am cutting up watermelon
and the only ice is what goes into the blender for frozen margaritas or iced tea slushies
to me it is a season about the deep cerulean blue of the pool and the summer sky
the orange of mangos, peaches, apricots and papaya
not to mention that wonderful red/ orange/ pink of piles of prawns
it is the yellow of pineapples and the sun
the green of the bamboo and palm fronds, and pine lime splice ice blocks
it is the bright colours of the bougainvillea, frangipani trees
and deep pinks of the dragon fruit, and the purples of hydrangeas and agapanthus
it is the red of cherries and lychees
of getting sun kissed and burning your butt on the leather seats when you get in the car
it is the smell of bug spray, and sun tan lotion, the sound of pool splashes and cricket balls
it is all about Christmas cracker paper hats sticking to your sweaty forehead
and groaning at the bad jokes within those same crackers
it is being sticky from eating mangoes and trying to wade through the god awful humidity
and long afternoon naps before being woken by the rumble of afternoon storms
to me that is the sound and colour palette of Christmas and I am sticking with it
happy painting all...xx
PS I am very excited about this challenge next year... have you checked it out yet?