Windy Day

Still from John and Faith Hubley's "Windy Day"

The wind is howling around our timber framed house today - moaning and groaning, timbers creaking... at my painting class this week we looked at the effect of wind on different subjects. It was fun, I hadn't thought about painting a windy picture as I generally paint/draw still life but I am enthused and so I decided to look around the jolly old tinternet to research the subject. To my utter surprise and delight I stumbled across this magical animation~Windy Day.

I have always loved illustration and the drawings in this are joyful and spontaneous. The film was made in 1968 by John and Faith Hubley who taped a conversation between their daughters Georgia and Emily discussing, well, life in general as well as devising a Medieval play and ruminating on age and death as only the very young do. The animation was then built around their musings so it is wonderfully abstract and yet some of their observations are touchingly honest and poignant.

If you have time do watch the film (9 minutes long) it is a wonderful piece of work - the line drawing and backgrounds are really fresh and I love the colours too...from the first stumbling notes and the opening panning shot I was charmed...here it is

 I am reminded how amazing, imaginative and perceptive children are. As cassette recorders and tapes are no longer fashionable and indeed, considered "low tech" , the fun that my brother and I had as children recording ourselves singing, performing Goon show scripts, Muppet shows and indeed playing the recorder all seems a very long time ago. But I should like nothing better than to listen to tapes of the latest generation of Littles in our family musing over whatever they choose...

-x-

Aren't these stills beautiful? If you are interested in reading more about the Hubleys and "Windy Day" then check Michael Sporn's animation blog here .

In the meantime I am off to find my recorder stash... I heard that groan Husband and Brother!

Have a great week

-x-