Toffee apples and love

[This a guest post from the sweet & lovely Emma Bradshaw]

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” ~ Pablo Picasso

I believe we are all creative beings, and that creativity manifests itself differently in all of us. I worry that society doesn’t encourage creativity and our eduction system doesn’t place a value on it as much as reading, writing and numeracy. I failed GCSE art for being too creative and not having enough observational drawings – pah!

Years after leaving school and having suppressed any creative urges, I was profiled for team building at work — have you ever had that done? Not surprising my personality was outed as being creative, although personally I think it was quite obvious as I often get sidetracked by the detail and have pictures in my head of how projects may look or feel. So I finally had a label, even if I hadn’t quite managed the GCSE at school.

I was brought up quite humbly, but with a constant supply paper and pencils which I’d use to write stories and draw pictures. I loved drawing maps of magical places and lands far away and reading — I would read for hours and hours. My mother would tell you she wasn’t creative, but she was queen of make do and mend, and all of my clothes were knitted or handmade, way before it was fashionable. While I drifted away from this childhood, finding my husband and setting up home together years later somehow unlocked the door to my creativity. I even made our wedding rings in a jewellery workshop.

Now I strive to ensure that our children have the opportunity to be creative and influences like TV and computers are kept to a minimum. We try to go out into nature as much as possible and summer holidays are for camping and exploring. We’ve a huge craft cupboard at home full of pots, paper, glue and fabric that the boys can use to make all kinds of weird and wonderful inventions. They even love to help me in the kitchen where we make everything from toffee apples and rainbow cakes to huge bowls of bangers & mash. My children now inspire me to be creative — I love how the world looks through their eyes…

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Emma Bradshaw lives in the Cotswolds with her young family and has loved photography since she first looked through the viewfinder of her mum’s Kodak Brownie. She delights in the details of simple everyday life: the clouds in the sky, picking blackberries and flasks full of hot chocolate! She blogs regularly at EmmaBradshaw.blogspot.com, hangs out on Twitter occasionally and sells prints in her Etsy store.

[all photos by Emma Bradshaw]