Blue Monday

So according to sources, today is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year, i have to admit i have felt a little sultry today, this feeling was added to when i got to my boyfriends and was informed that Tony Hart had died today age 83.


It got me thinking about the importance of HartBeat when i was a wee little nipper. I was rather young at this time but i have very fond memories of watching Hartbeat with my older sisters. And ofcourse one of the key characters was indeed dear little Morph. Morph simply brilliant and captured the imagination of young children and was a fantastic example of animation. A cheeky mischievious plastecine man and a iconic friend of Tonys, everyone loved Morph.

Then there was probably the most frustrating part of the show, the......................Gallery .Every childs heart would be beating faster as the music began and the camera started to shift along the wall showing all the entries. Every week children would be dissapointed if there picture wasnt up there but then the feeling if you were one of the lucky ones would have been the best moment in your life to date and every girl and boy in school would be envious of your success as an artist!!!! I dont think i know anyone who was lucky enough. I'm sure i didn't submit anything, i dont think i would of been quite confident enough and i was and i am still a perfectionist, so i never would of been happy with my drawing attempts and most certainly would of stamped my feet and got in a rotten temper if i wasnt chosen.

HartBeat was a great way to engage children with there artistic skills along with Art Attack. The imaginative giant collages using materials suh as paper cups to a garden hose were very resourceful and innovative. It was always so exciting guessing what it was going to be, a man climbing a mountain? or a big red tractor ploughing a field. I also have memories of trying things out from these such programmes and getting extremely cross because i wasnt able to do it (stamps her feet firm on the ground)




Children's drawings like the one above are some of the best pieces of work ive ever seen. I love them. There is such an imaginative naive quality exposed, and you know that they would of probably been finished in about 10 mins rather than hours. When i was at University i noticed myself regressing as an artist and beininning to enjoy some of the free qualities of drawing you have when you're young. I am still keeping hold of some of those qualities as i work now and one of my favourite artists at the moment is my 4yr old nephew Arthur, ill have to upload some of his captivating dinosaurs with stumpy legs, i may even try to do a collaboration with him, im pretty sure he would be the boss of me!!!

Thinking about all of these memories has brightened up Blue Monday and has given me some good ideas, so R.I.P Tony Hart, i'm sure you were an inspration to many artisits of my generation.