Hi Friends,
So glad you have decided to visit here today, happy Sunday to you! It looks like our horrible stormy weather has finally blown away and the sun has come out again. There is so much to be done both inside and outside before the start of winter, and I am itching to get started, so all this weather has been a bit of a pain. So after I finish here I will have to rush outside and do as much as possible today while it is dry.
Today’s Art . . .
Today’s art is a page using my Day 2 prompt: Childhood and how it relates to the theme.
This nursery rhyme game is one I remember playing when I was a kid – with these exact words – though you may know a different version. We would hold hands and dance around in a circle, make the sneezing “A-tishoo” sound from the third line and then after the fourth line, we would all fall down on the grass. There are other versions of this rhyme, some using “tissue tissue” or even “ashes ashes” for the third line.
Ring a ring a roses
A pocket full of posies
A-tishoo A-tishoo
We all fall down
For as long as I can remember, I was told that this rhyme referenced the Great Plague of London in 1665 – the rings of roses refers to the red rash on the the faces, they carried scented posies to ward off disease, bad smells etc, “a-tishoo” referred to the sneezing, and then in the last line everyone fell down and died. BUT apparently this explanation of the rhyme only started in the mid 1900s, so it may not actually be referencing the Great Plague at all! Another myth??? Or was it just that no one made that connection before 1950?
My page consists of a watercolour background, with the children coloured with Pitt pens and a regular pencil, then I circled the page with a daisy chain using Poscas. Daisy chains were something I remember making a lot as our lawn was always full of daisies, much to my parents’ disappointment..
Hope you feel inspired to join in the challenge this month and have fun with it!
Let me know what you think in the comments. As always, thanks for reading!Ingredients
my handmade journal, watercolour paper, watercolour, graphite pencil, poscas, Pitt artist pens,
Challenges
Art Journal Journey – Fairytales, Folklore & Fables
Daily Prompts
Here are the prompts I will be using and you can probably tell that a lot of them are related to fairytales, but you don’t have to use them that way or you don’t have to use them at all. I will be attempting all 31 days but I may not make it and that’s OK too. The prompts are there if you feel stuck or in need of extra inspiration. I just respond well to a daily prompt and I will also be sharing my pages on Instagram. If you share your work on Instagram there is a hashtag. Please note, that to enter the Art Journal Journey challenge using the Mr Linky tool, you will have to link from a blog since it is a blog challenge.
Or you can ignore the daily prompts completely and focus on the overarching theme for the month. The daily prompts are there if you want to make more pages but need some extra prompting.
The version I learned is slightly different, but I have heard it relates to the Bubonic Plague. In fact I’ve even seen it in documentaries when I was teaching. Isn’t it funny how something can become such a part of accepted knowledge and might not even be true? I love your children in the ting playing, and this is a great idea for your challenge this month. Happy new week. Hugs-Erika
A great ryhyme – I think the Opie’s may have that explanation in one of their books. I love your drawing and the daisy chain reminded of my Gran’s lawn that always had lots of daisies! Hugs, Chrisx
Oh well done! And an excellent question. I remember singing the song in a circle of children. When I found out that it might referencing the plague, it really creeped me out. Ha!
I heard it a different way. Ring around the rosie, a pocketful of posies, ashes to ashes, we all fall down. I never heard your version before, but it all meant the same thing, apparently. So glad you shared this and you did a fabulous job coloring and painting the children. Thanks for this inspirational entry using your theme, dear Elle.