I grew up obsessed with painting and colouring in. And I still have the small tin of Caran d’Ache coloured pencils my gran bought me when I was about 11 - just a dozen colours, but so rich, so lovely. So precious. I purposefully kept them for “best” (which is probably why I still have them 40 years later) whilst having worn out countless hordes of cheap ones, and handfuls of drawing pencils. “Best”? Looking back, I think that response was a teensy bit strange… Why didn’t I just burn through and enjoy them? No money…Worried I’d never see their like again? Maybe I didn’t think what I drew was worthy of them? I do remember that I couldn’t bear to wear them out. And that I was very unhappy if I couldn’t keep paint or colour inside the lines. Hmmm… Go on, let go of the lines... Colour wherever you like! You know you want to. Picture and photo: Christine Pedersen. 2016. I was recently directed to this TED article examining the value of the colouring-in trend, and asked
working through my obsessions