They're coming! Yes, they are coming!  I am ready; I have a special outfit for the occasion. It won't be long and they will appear!  In just a few minutes, they will be here. Yes, the well known Bear painters, Theodoreo  DaBearvinci, Vinted Van Gogh , Claudebear Moneted, Michtedangelo  and Pablo Tedcasso  are coming  here to the Kiosk today !! They are going to give me an art lesson!! Imagine all five of these such famous teddy painters all being in the one room at the same time…and that room is our Kiosk!!  My extra special outfit that I am going to wear is a rainbow coloured art smock. I got it from Freda Fashions Fabulous Formal outfits shop. Freda is an old, old friend of mine. We go back many many years, and have such golden memories of fun times spent at Teddy Bears Picnics and meeting up at special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, and  weddings.  Freda has just opened up her formalwear fashions rental shop. She of course doesn't charge a rental fee though, because as you know, teddies don't have money! She was given a lot of formal outfits in her first collection, but the funny thing was that she was also given a most special art smock! As soon as she heard that these famous painters were coming to visit, she straight away rang me on her bear mobile phone and let me know the fantastic news that she had an outfit that would so suit me to a "t" for a teddy! It is a white art smock, with a big splash of red here, a blue splash there, a sunny yellow pattern is in another part of the smock, green stripes go up and down the outfit, purple makes an appearance around the edges of the smock, and there is a bright pink heart that has been imprinted right in the middle of the smock, just where my heart is!! Very cute looking even if I say so myself! And it comes with an accessory! A nose protector! Yes, all art smocks need to come with this, because most painters that you see end up with paint from their brushes on their noses!! So….you need to have a nose protector! It makes sense doesn't it!   I will though just slip in a little promo for Freda's new shop because she is trying to build up her customer base. Ad alert:  " Go to Freda Fashions Fabulous Formal outfits shop. They have such fashionable clothes there!" Ad alert over!  

Hmmm…what do you serve such famous teddy Painters to eat? I think that they paint still life pictures of bowls of fruit, so I am sure that they would like some little tubs of Goulburn Valley fruit from off the Kiosk shelves, as well as some long life cream, which would remind them of their white paint. Did I ever tell you about my teddy friend Sally the setter -upperer of items for Painters to paint? She does such a great job of placing items such as fruit or vases of flowers or other such items  in various artistic positions. Well, last week, she was arranging some fruit in a nice glass bowl and just as she was doing this  Melinda Mum bear came into the room with baby Bobby bear. Oh, he is such a cute little bear! I call him a baby, but really he is a toddler. Oh, how fast children grow don't they! And Bobby has just learnt to walk. Well, now he wants to walk and climb and run around everywhere! Bobby was also feeling a bit hungry because Melinda had been talking to other Mum bears and he felt that he wanted to have something to eat because he was hungry!! And you don't really want to have a rumbling, grumbling hungry tummy do you?! So…when Bobby spied the bowl of fruit, he straight away toddled over there on his bear paw legs, grabbed an apple and started to munch into it! Then he grabbed a few grapes and popped them into his mouth! Sally and Melinda in the meantime were having a great chat catching up on all the teddy news, and so when they happened to look around after a little while, they saw that the fruit bowl was quite empty, apart from a banana skin and an apple core!! Bobby enjoyed his fruity. healthy lunch though!! 

When I heard that these Painters were coming, I asked Charles the Carpenter bear if he could please make me an easel so as I could look very professional and have it set up with some white paper on which I could paint a picture. I am not a very tall teddy, so I wanted to have an easel that wasn't too high up for me to reach the paper. Charles said that he would work on this important task immediately, so before you could say:" painting pretty  pansies particularly proves purposeful and pleasant" Charles returned whistling a happy tune with my easel under his arm. How very exciting! Now…I must just get some paints.  Perhaps the painters will bring some paints with them?

I do hope that the Painters give me some insider's tips on painting good pictures! I wonder if they will actually paint some pictures themselves! What a great name for one of their new masterpieces: "The Kiosk- a capturing of a welcoming place to browse, shop and chat". Wow! ! It might even hang up in a famous Bear Gallery! Clarence the Art Museum Curator bear may even hang it on a prominent wall in the art gallery that he looks after! Then all the art liking teddies would come and have a look at it and clap their hands as their eyes saw such a nice sight!

I've got it! I have GOT it ! What have I got, you may ask? Well, I have just thought of what I can use if the Painters don't bring any paints with them. The solution is right before my eyes on the Kiosk shelves! I will grab a bottle of tomato sauce for red paint, some mint jelly from the jar off the shelf for green paint, use some of a block of butter from the fridge for yellow painting (perhaps I will melt it in a saucepan first?), I'll break off some dairy milk chocolate and melt that to use for a brown colour, crack a very orangey egg for an orange colour, my white paint can be some long life milk which I will pour into my paint pallet…and I'll be all set for painting!

Oh no!! I have just received a text message on my bear mobile phone! The teddy Painters can't come to the Kiosk to see me! They are apologising very profusely but they explained that at the exact time that they were going to visit me, they had already promised to attend little Mandy bear's 4^th birthday and do face painting of all her little teddy friends that will be attending her party. They just wouldn't want to disappoint little Mandy and all her friends that are just soooo looking forward to having their faces all colourfully painted.  That wouldn't be very nice, you don't want to let down a little teddy bear do you!  I really like seeing the little ones with bright happy smiles on their faces, and especially bright colourful painted faces!

Well, it doesn't really matter. Perhaps they will be able to visit me another time.

Until next time,

             Enjoy looking at paintings or  create some masterpieces yourself!

                         Your friend, Mr. Kiosk-Ted Strath

                       Also simply known as "Ted"!!