CACTUS WATERCOLOUR COLLAGE LOVE LOVE-MR. PRICKLES YOU ARE JUST TOO DAMN CUTE...

 CACTUS WATERCOLOUR COLLAGE LOVE -

MR. PRICKLES YOU ARE JUST TOO DAMN CUTE...

Oooh...oooh.Ouch.Ouchie.There it goes,my heart being prickled.By a cactus.

They seem to be everywhere at the moment..on T-shirts for kids at Target,in catalogues for furniture brands like Freedom,and in glossy magazines in cool houses.They are the plants of choice at the moment,of the people in the know.

I am proud to say I have loved these dudes for a long time, before they began appearing on T-shirts.I have admired their form, their colour, their sheer tough guy attitude for ever...well since I was about 11. 

Around about that age, my parents took us on an American odyssey in a big RV for a few months, and one of the places we camped in was The Sonoran Desert,in Arizona.This was like a desert from a Wiley Coyote cartoon...the whole place was covered in textbook perfect cactus plants.It blew my little mind away.My sketchbooks were littered with little cactus shaped scribbles.

 

 Fast forward...quite a bit.A few decades in fact.Now  I am a grown up, living in the country in NSW.Where it is often dry,and hot, real damn hot.SO...cactus are a natural choice for  people like me who have a zillion passions pulling them in all directions, who love plants, have a family puppies who love to chew things and who live in a locale where lack of water and heat are part of the deal. 

Lucky for me,I found a guy at the local Farmer's markets,who sells succulent and cactus for a few dollars apiece.With my money from my own stall jangling in my pocket,and a feeling of joy I bought about a dozen.My Mr.Prickle family had begun!

Now I have a little collection sitting in old tins and pots,ceramics scored from Ikea and thrift shops,that I tend to and admire almost everyday. I have sketched them in pencil and charcoal,painted them in watercolour, ink and gouche,made collages of them, snapped photos of them,and just spent time staring at them.My sketchbooks are once again full of cactus scribbles.

And even though they may be trending, and I may be seen as following fashion...I do not care.I may be unoriginal.I may be seen as getting onto the bandwagon.But Mr.Prickles and I,we know the truth...xxx

(oh, and just to let you know, some of these pictures, paintings and collages are for sale  link here...rarepearstudio.big.cartel.com !