I don’t tend to watch a lot of TV; however, I did catch DIY SOS last night whilst eating my dinner on the sofa. Firstly, I have to admit it did make me cry. This week was about a family with 3 girls, the father has terminal lymphoma and they were living in a derelict house that was falling down around them. The health visitor, bless her dedication, put them forward to DIY SOS and the generosity of the community astounded me. At one point they had over a 100 volunteers working on the house. I was also blown away by the maturity of the oldest daughter.
However, this isn’t what’s excited me. As they were struggling financially, the parents had to come up with creative ways to entertain the girls, ranging in age from about 3-10 years old, that didn’t cost a lot. This is when they introduced the idea of over-painting. So much more fun than paint by numbers!
When I first saw it I thought, wow, what a brilliant idea, truly genius and wanted to share with you. Basically, they go to charity shops and buy old prints for a couple of quid. The girls then set about identifying areas on the old prints that could use jazzing up with a bit of colour and then proceed to paint directly on the prints. It may not sound that impressive but the results are amazing! I love the idea and am going to try it out myself!
What do you think??
If you fancy watching this particular episode you can find it here on BBC iPlayer. The overpainting is about 35 minutes in.
Oooh a fab idea indeed – you could buy “cheap” posters to do this (would worry that I would be covering an unknown piece of “real art”). Fab. You MUST have a go and report back!
Maggy
I was half watching that episode.. I think, as a person who has absolutely no artistic flair, this would be a fantastic way to get a little creative!