Tuesday, January 01, 2008

November - HK/ UK - and winning!


After Halloween things didn’t slack off – I had a couple more party bookings and checkups on my back. It was also bug season - this seems to be the best time to see butterfies as mum found out last year.
But this October alaso saw me nearly sit on a very agressive preying mantis in the bar!I carried it out to get a better pic but it went for the camera. It later cleared 16 teenage instrcutors off said table...


I did a lovely day at the huge house yacht Carolyn lives on at Aberdeen Marina club. Posh! (about 4 stories high with massive sitting rooms, dining room, kitchen, gorgeous hand-painted porcelein bowls as sinks in all the loos, etc.) She insisted I used her for the UK face painter of the year competition – the theme was ‘Jungle’ and the entries had to be received for mounting/ labelling before I arrived in the UK. First I refined an idea of a jungle frog climbing over a face I had first tried (painting in the dark) on some kids Pete had been teaching who had stayed late at the club for a birthday tea. I liked that, it was clear and simple.
Then I did a half jaguar half constrictor face that didn’t quite work, especially as I painted the snake eye on her eyelid and she couldn’t keep one eye open and one shut easily for the camera.
Last of all she put on a black corset top, as she was going out, and I did a sort of dayglo pink quetzal bird with its feathers going down her cleavage and a slightly Amazon Indian face on her. She loved that and went out with it on – apparently had the most fun out on the town she has had in years!


Then there was the YAF Arts in the Plaza day – all the different companies had sent teams of vols, who had been given brief training sessions in everything from arts and crafts and face painting to balloon twisting, and were set up all around Stanley Plaza. The plaza surrounds a covered amphitheatre, and all day there were assorted dance groups form toddlers to teenagers strutting their stuff for a huge audience. I set up under a tree in sight of the face-painting volunteers (who were on cushions on carpeted floors) and didn’t stop all day.

I then arranged to bodypaint Ada (the girl I painted in Shanghai) for the UK Body Painting competition. I had hoped to do that on Carolyn, but she had a stomach operation. The only day Ada & I both had free was the day I was flying back to the UK.
She arrived after lunch and I did a very quick bodypaint on her (she wore a bikini) to fit the body comp and another one looking for seasonal jungle skin art (jungles aren’t really seasonal, I pointed out!) which I called Jungle Heart – simple leaves and vines against a Mayan temple and moon, with sort of heart-shaped twirls to the ends of things.

There was a storm starting as we finished so sadly we didn’t get to take pics outside –too wet and dark! My good camera has finally died after 4 years of continuous use, and I'd bought a tiny Nikon digital that was good at faces and fit easily into my kit to take on gigs. Sadly it was crap at shots further away, I found. Ah well! I quickly burnt her a CD of the shots, I emailed them off to the judge in the UK then went out for Thai dinner with Pete and his dad’s cousin Gary and wife Pam who was touring China with his wife, lecturing about a nuclear fusion (in the sun) book he had written. Our favourite Thai in Aberdeen has gone – its now a bank! Anyway they dropped me off at the Airport express and I got my plane back to the UK. Not fun, every seat was full. I think the girl beside me had never flown before (had no English) as she took photos of EVERYTHING for the free headphones and blankets to each snack and meal, the whole way. Then there was the mad stroppy old chinese man who refused to sit down as we were landing and punched other passengers.

I met Michelle for lunch and then got a train and taxi to the farm – Sue had gone for a weekend helping a friend who was a train enthusiast so Granny Wilkins was on her own. I had hoped to go to a party with Sammy in London, but had badly swollen ankles so it was just as well I had look after Granny! Saturday was Mich's leaving-to-go-all-round-the-world party do in a posh pub in Norwich.
It was great to see Kate J (Mini Monsters) and her mum again but I was full of cold/ jetlag and had to leave early or I wouldn't have been able to drive home due to snoring.....


I saw a lot of Tim & Heather that weekend which was great, especially as H was trying her hand at baking cakes – yum! They were giggling at my Quetzal bird costume for the Conference Ball (national bird of Guatemala – big green tail plumes) – I spent the weekend sewing beautiful feather trims I found in HK onto an old pair of boxer shorts and a smart green top of mine. We met Brian for lunch in a pub one day too. It was actually warm-ish when I arrived but by Sunday the weather changed and walking Mac meant wearing every jumper I could find!

I really miss big open skys like that - I think in HK the buildings hedge me in like when I lived in London, and when we are at Middle Island there's the mountainy islands and usually the low clouds/ pollution.

Norfolk fallen sycamore leaves
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.

So Norfolk was gorgeous.
And HK doesn't do autumn colours - its all lush (wrong!) greens and then immediately dry dead greens.....


Monday I drove off to meet Sammy at Gordy & Ishis luxurious flat in Hampshire(?).
The next day I had a lesson with Lynn Jamieson who I think has to be the best face & body artist in the world.
She was sort of ‘discovered’ last year and immediately flooded with requests for classes, but she’s very shy and insecure about her talents, really.
She's also an amzing photographer and VERY good at acting strange faces to match her paintwork! She made friends with Claire & Julie who run the great face & body art magazine launched last year that has publishes bits of my work, and they arranged a teaching tour of Europe with her. It was nice to meet some people I knew from online chatting, and see Lynn’s techniques – I bought a couple of the dagger brushes she prefers, to try out later.
I spent that night at Gees, driving all the way up painted as a blue koala by Lynn! My much missed ex-cat was very friendly when I arrived
but ignored me once Vicky let us in - shes changed her personality a bit which is a shame. Still the silkiest fluffiest ever though.

Vicky & evil eyes Fluffy
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.


From Wednesday I stayed at Mums, and took her grocery shopping for the first time since her back troubles started. We got a massive load at Tescos, and I made some legs and a branch out of stuffed tights to complete my costume. Then I started making a new fairy skirt for me from materials I brought back from Hong Kong. The conference didn’t start till Friday afternoon, so I checked into the hotel then and started bumping into painters I knew. It was much nicer than last time (the first time I went, 2 years ago) as I knew faces of ‘famous’ instructors and once we worked out who was who, also met a load more painters I talk to online.
Bibi was madly setting up her paint selling stall so I didn’t really get a chance to talk to her. Lynn was already demo-ing at the Illusion Magazine stall, and Mark Reid (USA Painter famed for doing jeans) was painting his other half Tiana (gorgeous Hawaiian who came 4th and painted in the same tent as me at the World Face Awards).
I also met Emma Cammack who I did the clothes painting class with – she’d just done a load of simple painted hand-animals for the packaging of a new range of munchy seeds for Tesco’s and gave me a bunch to try.



The hotel was lovely, with free drinks and snacks available all the time. I was lucky enough to get chatting to Ales Hansen, who is much loved (hes a mad party animal but very friendly). I saw him/ his work at the World Championships in Seeboden but was too busy/ tired/ shy to talk to him there.
I started off by buying some of the stuff I knew I needed (having left my list in HK!) and then joined in a fun face paint comp in a room it took ages to find. Another lady volunteered to be my model and I did a bad version of a better face of mine as a venus flytrap – the theme was ‘mean green’.
Models had to keep their faces on until the evening banquet. There, all the instructors were introduced onstage with a face or body model they had done,
and our green faces wandered the tables so everyone could vote on their favourite. A beginner I had met at Lynns class sort of attached herself to me as she didn’t know anyone, but really she was so forward and bubbly I think she met/ knew more people by the end of the 3 days than I did! The food was not thrilling, but afterwards Anne who was sharing compere duties with Shannon (from Canada) arranged a UV paint jam in the bar. We all ended up there – I and several others took along what UV paints we had, Anne had set up UV lights and had a big range of UV stuff and we all had a bit of a play with it, filling various challenges set. Anne has this thing where she gets people to body paint her when she’s clothed – she has this old white shirt that apparently has been painted by 100s at one time or another.
Quite odd to watch, sort of a painter shark frenzy! Lynn was surrounded by admirers as she painted a gorgeous design on Julie’s (from Illusion Magazine) elder daughter.
After getting her a drink I was too tired, and headed off to bed, not that I slept much due to jetlag! Lynn painted till 3 am I hear.....

The idea is there are about 4 classes going on at the same time, and you have to pick which ones you want to go to most, and try to get into them (some are limited in space or numbers so you have to try to sign up asap). Sunjest ranged from painting flowers to making fake scars and wounds, to balloon twisting.
There were several set areas where 'stars' were bodypainting and also demos of stuff in the retail room where everything you could want was on sale, and lots of areas to sit and chat or network. I was getting a bit freaked out by all the people who knew me - it was nice in a way as they would come up and say hi or congratulate me on my website, but as often I couldn't place them (or had never met them even online) it was confusing! I watched the Wolfe Brothers do their thing – as usual, fabulous and entertaining as well.
I had arranged a car valeter to come and do my glitter and mud-filled car while I was at the conference, so I kept popping out to see if he’d arrived which was annoying. But worth it - he did a great job, car almost like new!

After the break my next class was with Riffat who is the star of UK henna art – she is one of the pioneers of coloured gem & glitter henna tattoos too. She has done some gorgeous stuff for art exhibitions of henna'd dancers, and worked with Madonnas Henna artists etc. It was really interesting as she explained the reason many people have bad reactions to henna is it is sold with all sorts of nasty stuff mixed into it. She and most good professionals get their henna from the source – the best suppliers will not sell to shops –and mix their own. It can be kept frozen for a while but you should never buy it off the shelf as it goes off.
She showed us how to make cones (not that I think I can do that easily - fiddly!) then gave us pre-made cones to try designs traced onto a sheet for us. That was it – I was off – tho in hindsight doing a design on my own left palm made getting and eating the buffet lunch very yard without trying to knock the drying pattern off!

After lunch I saw Lorna Strachan (great painter form Scotland – the one I did the Taxi Drivers Troon Day with this summer) and her fast designs.
Wow! 2 minutes or less for gorgeous tigers (she did one on me that sadly I had to wash off for the ball as it didn’t go with my outfit), girly abstracts, etc – she had to slow down as we kept missing it!

I actually went to an airbrush body painting demo, as it was by Pashur from the USA. He was an artist originally ( I do think the best in the industry all had at least a leaning towards being arty in the first place). He is sponsored by Mehron paints - the same company my heroine Jinny developed Paradise paints with. He does do brush & sponge as well - his jungle frog was my favourite of the weekend.
It was interesting - if I had space/ money/ car/ time/ a strong henchman I would try airbrush, as the speed it can cover skin is amazing. Pashur also added to the face-painters vocab - we already know & love 'Tackle Tart' (she who has 100's of paints including at least 4 of every colour in different brands, dozens of brushes, every new gadget out and a nice wheely trolley for it all, etc). He gave us 'Glitter Whore' which is apparently big in the industry in America - she/ he who has dozens of cosmetic glitters and uses them a LOT.

All the photos entered for the face and body competitions were displayed without names in boards in the main corridor, so everyone spent spare time trying to spot who had done what.
There were a couple of great ones in my category, but my photo definitely let me down in the body section and I hadn’t known you could submit up to 4 photos to show all angle and to highlight details of your body. Only after the winners were announced at the Costumed Ball would names be added to the photos. I was also a bit miffed as they were displaying winning shots of faces that had won online awards on the Convention Site for the year up to that weekend. I had won 2 things but 1 they had the wrong photo up (a really naff face of mine), and the other wasn’t there – typically both faces I was pleased with!



A couple of people had asked me to paint them for the ball, but luckily in the end I only had to do 1 lady, who was from Brazil but living in London. She had a great outfit with those sort of Brazilian dancer shoulder bits. I had tried 2 different ideas for my own face on me and wiped them both off, to do a simple face I later realised looked a bit like a green version of a tribal face in an early Buffy the Vampire Slayer series! I also did as much of my lower legs as I could as tree bark. We all queued up to get a pro photo taken and for judges to see costumes – most people had made at least a token effort.

Sadly the lighting in the hall was green so a lot of detail on my outfit was lost, and the legs, talons and branch sewn to the front of my shorts (my legs were the trunk) confused a lot of people. I’m insisting this was as the green nail varnish claws were invisible in that light – some got it but others thought it was a bunch of maggots or something rude!
Anne’s african tribeswoman with fake boobs to her knees was hysterical, but some more understated ones were fab.

There was a dutch guy who was a plane-crashed business man, with broken glasses and half a CD stuck out of his head.

The freebies on the tables went down well but we were very late eating – the hotel had miscounted their settings and instead of 12 places per table, some had 9 so there were many people left unseated for a while.
After (odd!) food, there were gorilla actors (in costumes but the had the mannerisms down well) and a bunch of fake Ozzie bushtucker trial actors circling the tables making you guess smells and eat (real!) kangaroo testicles!
I had a tipsy Trudi (the newbie) on one side and quiet George on the other who I met several time as he sells the For Now glitter Tattoo kits.
They started announcing the winners; Tammy won the green mean face and got a trophy calling her Painter of the Show which confused a lot of people (I think there were meant to be more live comps from what was said but only that 1 happened). Anne rightly won the fancy dress, a lady I don’t know won the body painter, and someone who had never been/ wasn’t there (lived in Australia) won the beginner face painter of the year with a posted photo entry. I was talking to George when Trudy started thumping me - I'd been announced the UK Face Painter of the Year (UK FPOTY as we know it). I was shocked but relieved as there was a decent cheer for me - for some winners (most noticeably the unknown absent one) there had been only token applause. I have no idea what I said to the microphone as the directors of Snazaroo USA & UK presented me with the stuff,(several 100 pounds worth of Snazaroo paint, plus a big glass trophy and free entry to next years conference) but hope it wasn't too embarressing.
I went and hid behind Bibi at her table (I still hadn't got a chance to talk to her) then sneaked back to my seat when other things started happening. Wow!
Gary Cole of Snaz USA kindly leaned over and said it was my frog that had won, it just leapt out from amongst all the photos!

I nipped back to my room briefly to dump my winnings and text everyone, and was shocked to hear Petes dad Brian and nmost of his family had just buried Petes Grandad and were at the wake in Irleand. Still, sounded like it went well, with the Royal British Legion etc.


After the meal, there were pub games in the bar - teams had to paint the answers on specific bits of bodies and sometimes specific type of people's bodies.
Shame there was no dancing but I got to chat to more, including the lovely Lone for Norway (?) and Anita who had put in a 2 page article by me to the FACE magazine.


The buffet breakfast was great and I was awed to find I was queuing with Christina Davison, a USA painter who was the first to do a cute, recogniseable full horse face. Her other stuff is fabulous – she just did a set called ‘Zoodiac with lifelike animals painted on humans. She was ‘only’ there to watch but luckily in one of the classes I went to, when Shannon was asked to do a pony, Christina volunteered to stand up and paint it, yay!
I finally got to watch a class by Mark Reid. He looks totally 'wrong' for a painter - big muscly beefy guy - but does the most fantastic delicate elegant work. Usually on his other half, the lovely Tiana, though she says she plans to stop being his model and start teaching from next year.
I got even more annoyed than him, as during his class people kept talking, going in and out, even repeatedly answering mobiles (you are asked to switch them off at the start). It was just RUDE and he had to get all teachery, understandably. Very annoying and I don't recall it happening at the other conference I went to. Strangely that lot either left or behaved for Bibis class which I went to next!

I STILL didn't get to talk to Bibi (apart from while she face painted me during her anti-Christmas demonstration) so we met up briefly at a pub accross the road after. I then had to leg it back to Mums as they were not serving food. We talk more online!

Monday night in Bristol I met up with Vicky (worked with me at SuperChoice/ 3D as a Field Studies Instructor when I was a senior there) and Rob (who lived with Vicky when we all worked at Suffolk Wildlife Park– while I camped for a couple of autumn months they gave me warm meals!). That was great as I’d not seen Rob since he left Lowestoft to be a zoo jeeper at Paignton. He’s now a Head Keeper at Bristol. The wierd experession is cos we took about 20 photos and in every single one ROb had his eyes shut - thats me showing how wide eyes worked......


As you can see it worked!

I got the 'honour' of collecting the Wolfe Brothers from their motorway hotel and tracking back through rush hour traffic to the Community Hall they were teaching classes in for 2 days. Middle of nowhere, funny wee rooms in South Bristol. There was an OAP art class next door and old men kept getting lost on their way back from the loos and getting very confused when they saw our class. At one point Nick was invited into theirs and we nearly lost hinm to the old ladies.

Still it was great to watch them at work and listen to their banter, and they did a good range of stuff I want to try out when I get a chance.

I don't quite get why they have lost their 'name' to the brand of paint they still use and promoted, but hope they start up something else on their own. They have revolutionised the industry, especially for boys faces and getting men into it.

I had an awful time dropping them off at their new B&B, a piub near Bristol Airport, that night - traffic was jammed and it poured. I couldn't get into the lane I wanted (thank gods for the Satnav) and realised I had pulled in front of a police car stopped at traffic lights - much panic but he didn't pull me over! Just as well as I was painted as a bird and the brothers were both monsters!
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