One of the options for this is a stone, which I interpret as a pebble and which gives me an opportunity to dispose of one that must have come as a gift because it bears an image of a ginger Persian cat in an unlikely pose. I have the penguin in mind for this.

Early on in the pandemic, I painted large numbers of pebbles and left them outside for people to take home [a big card reminded people about hand hygiene if they took one and keeping a distance from others while they looked]. Someone called out to me recently in passing and said their daughter had taken a few and, not long ago, started painting her own. She’s eight, it’s brilliant. I rarely painted objects, generally it was patterns using the effect of dark on light acrylics. A gold underlayer with dark blue/green on top worked best, but people also liked the purple or pink on silver. I’ll need to be more constrained with this task though, but I think I have a head start with regards to the materials and how they behave in this sort of context.

When there is music, this little chap starts to dance – and sing. It orients towards the sound and generates sounds of its own, and makes disappointed noises if you don’t interact with it. I’ve had it years, sitting on a shelf without batteries, and brought it out for what passes as my collection of white things. It’s quite a challenge to make precise marks on a rounded surface with a flexible point on a stick, especially when the subject keeps moving, but I may have just about got there. I used the pens to make the little areas of colour on his belly that appear when he’s keyed up. It’s almost impossible not to respond to his little vocalisations.