Hello,

So Christmas is now well on it's way, (well I've started my shopping and I always feel it's getting closer when I start doing that!)  I'm going to share some Christmas themed work that I've been up to.  It's two pieces of work made from the same initial image.  I've been thinking about toy theatres and how I could create something inspired by them for a while now, especially since my visit to the Federic Mares museum in Barcelona and after a recent visit to the The Museum of Childhood.  Originally I was going to make my Christmas card as a theatre but in the end I decided to create a simpler illustration first and make a theatre from that.  It was a challenge to work with the 2d image whilst figuring out if it would work in 3d and it meant my floor was covered with papers and pieces of card for quite some time!  (I can make quite a mess), but I really enjoyed the process and am quite happy with how it all turned out.  I set myself a challenge to work with a reduced range of colours also.  It you like it the card can also be bought as a print or card in my society6 shop.

Christmas Card

Theatre

I hope you're having a good weekend, I'll be back soon :)

Hello there,

I thought I'd share what I've been up to just lately.  So below is something based on my recent-ish visit to Barcelona (it seems a long time ago now!)  I really wanted to restrict my use of colour for this one and I loved doing the ink line work.  This piece is inspired by the area around the Cathedral and the museums around there that I visited.  One of my first stops was the Cathedral as I'd been walking round the gothic area on day one locating myself.  In the cloisters there actually are geese (apparently they've been here since medieval times) they make quite a racket too.  

The dolls, keys and Saint come from the fascinating Museu Frederic Mares which I loved looking around.  Museums like this are great as they're not as well known so you can really take some time to have a really good nose, and you're practically alone in doing so.  Frederic Mares was a collector and the range is huge, fans, clocks, sculptures, ironwork, all beautifully arranged.  On the top floor was the toy room, I was the only one there alongside the guard (who had to put all the lights on for me).  It was full of old mini theatres, and old toys along with lots of dolls all in glass cabinets....my horror film mind was in overdrive ;).  I loved it!  It's set in a lovely courtyard which houses a cafe which of course I had to have a coffee at (there is always time for a good coffee).

I also visited the Museu Historia Barcelona where you get to walk around roman ruins including a laundry and wine making area.  I love things like this and I really enjoy having the time to really look around.  

Apart from that I've been visiting several exhibitions just lately.  I finally got to have a proper look around the extension at the Tate Modern which I'd been intending to do for ages.  I also went to see Opus Anglicanum at the V&A which was amazing, such incredible detail and beauty, I really recommend it.  Finally I went to Bjork Digital at Somerset House which was incredible.  I didn't really know what to expect but it blew me away.  I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I went so I'm really happy I got to go.  I think it's touring so if you get the chance go!

Ok I've waffled on long enough, back to work!  Have a great week and I'll be back soon :).

Hello there,

In case you haven't seen my instagram I've recently just been on my first visit to Barcelona.  It was an amazing trip, I absolutely loved it.  I hadn't been out of the country for a pretty long time so I was desperate to go and see something new, I couldn't have picked a more perfect place.  There was so much to see, beauty and colour everywhere, plus lovely sunshine everyday.  Of course all the Gaudi architecture was amazing and I adored Park Guell.  I had a list of everything I really wanted to see and I saw all the major sites and museums, but as always when you travel there are always extra things you find when you get there and there are some great museums which are pretty quiet and fascinating to go around.  The Museu Frederic Mares is set in a lovely courtyard and houses some of his collections of pretty much anything.  Near to that is the Museu D'historia de Barcelona where you take a walk around Roman excavations.  I spent a lot of time exploring by foot stopping to see anything that took my interest, plus I got to go in the sea :) it really couldn't have been better.  I'm planning to create some work based on this trip so I'll come back with that soon.  Now I'm just thinking where next!

Here's a few photos :).

Museu Nacional D'Art De Catalunya

Park Guell

Park Guell

Fundacio Joan Miro

Casa Batllo

Casa Batllo

La Pedrera

Museu Frederic Mares

Have a great week!

Hello,

It's been a nice sunny weekend here, hopefully this will continue for a little longer!
I've been busy drawing a Southbank map.  The Southbank here in London is a lovely place to go and walk around I think and there are plenty of things to do, places to stop, eat, drink and people watch.  It's been somewhere I've always enjoyed going to since I've lived here.
I always find maps challenging which I like.  I make a lot of sketches of everything before I put it all together trying to make sure everything is roughly where it should be, a lot of sticking and photocopying of all the sketches takes place before I work on the final.  I drew the Tate several times trying to get the texture I wanted!  I really love that building.  I do love London :).

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I hope you've had a good weekend, I'll be back soon :)

Hello,

I don't normally post on a Friday evening but as I'm now sitting down with a cuppa I thought I would.
Here's something I've been up to just recently.  A little different subject wise.  I haven't been drawing many figures of late and I'd been wanting to do something like this for a while.  Elizabeth 1st was a great subject as I could really go to town with the decoration and I wanted to include some of the symbols that are associated with her.   A few things we know about her appearance, she was a red-head, liked wearing ruffs and apparently had long slim hands!  I hope she's recognisable.

Have a lovely weekend, mine will be gymming, drawing and hopefully meeting some friends! :)

Hello,

I hope you're having a good weekend.  As I mentioned previously a few weeks back I had a few days away back in Norfolk.  Whilst I was there out and about visiting lots of lovely countryside I couldn't help but get inspired by what I saw.  There were some lovely wildflowers just blowing gently in the wind, such gorgeous sunny colours.  I came back and really wanted to do something floral so I created the piece below.  It was lovely to draw and paint this in the sunshine back home in my flat :).

Enjoy your week! x

Hello,

I thought I'd share some more work I've been up to just recently.  As it's summer, and the weather has been pretty lovely last week, finally! here's a couple of rather lovely summery drinks.  I know you can drink them whenever but in the heat a lovely iced drink always goes down well.
I really enjoyed creating the different textures especially the ice and limes in the mojito.

Mojito

Sangria

I hope you've had a good week and it's been sunny where you are :).

Have a good week! x

Hello,

So I've had a lovely week and a bit.  I spent a weekend in Norfolk, whilst I was there visiting Norwich which was lovely, (so was some delicious spiced orange cake I had sitting in a gorgeous outdoor garden!) and I also took a trip to Gressenhall Museum and farm which is a former old workhouse.  I have been before many years ago and it was great to go back.  I especially loved the recreated general store pictured below.

I also visited Wimpole hall on my way back to London.  They have a lovely walled garden which is huge.  I loved the view through the railings.

Once I was back in London I spent a long afternoon in the V&A something I've been wanting to do for ages.  In the past I used to spend a lot of time there but I haven't been for a long time and it was so good to go back and wander around.  I did a bit of sketching and just soaked it all up, such wonderful things are displayed there.  Some of my sketches and finds are below.

I also got to the British museum to see the Sicily culture and conquest exhibition and also wander round just enjoying all it has to offer.  I visited Sicily several years ago now and loved it.  The history of the island is so fascinating and there's so much to see.  So I was very keen not to miss this exhibition.  It was pretty busy but I managed to sketch a little of what I saw.  This is part of a capital, it wasn't the easiest place to draw!

So that was part of my week, It was so enjoyable to get out and about and see things.  I think it's so important and definitely something I now need to make time to do more regularly.

That's it for now.  I'll be back shortly with the new work I've been making, all summery.  Summer finally arrived in London and tomorrow is due to be a very hot day!

Bye for now :).

Hello,

It's a rather rainy night tonight here in London, I'm hoping that summer will arrive soon.  There has been one nice weekend where I got to picnic in Crystal Palace park which was rather nice.  I live north so being all the way down south I'd never been there.  It's so nice to visit new places even after living here for so many years, and the sunny days have to be grabbed whilst they are here!  Here's one of the dinosaurs from the park.

I've also been to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at Victoria Miro.  I had no idea that it would be so busy though, I thought heading there on a friday afternoon would mean a nice quiet look around, but there was a long queue, not quite what i envisaged.  Still I did love the pumpkins.

I've also entered the Playing Arts competition.  I don't normally enter competitions I have to say but I liked the brief for this one and I was pleased to get the ace of spades as my card.  You are issued with a card to create and some great artists have made work for previous packs.  Immediately I knew I wanted to do some sort of decorative tree using the spade shape, I wanted to have an animal in it, and I wanted to ban myself from using green as I use a lot of that colour in my work.

That's all for now.  Have a great week and I aim to be back soon!

Hello from a lovely sunny London :).  So nice to feel the sunshine.  So there has been a longer break between my last post and this one, my aim is to try to blog more regularly.  Sometimes the weeks rush by busily and the time goes!
So just lately I've been drawing more food which has been fun.  I like eating so it's always a pleasure drawing tasty stuff.
First up are peppers stuffed with couscous, halloumi (one of my favourites), spinach and chickpeas.

Next it's roasted cauliflower with thyme.  Cauliflower used to get a bit of bad rep in the past but it seems to be getting more popular now.  Roasted it's absolutely delicious.  You can roast the whole cauli all chopped up and eat it warm or cold in a salad.  Believe me it's yum!

I used several materials to create this piece which is how I love to work.  I really enjoy mark marking and creating textures and i loved making a pattern with all the ingredients.

That's it for now, I'm off to start scribbling for a new piece of work.  Hopefully in the sunshine!  Have a lovely week :)

Hello,

It's been a lovely sunny sunday afternoon here which is nice.  Even though it's still been quite cold, with the days getting longer it does feel like summer is on the way and it's lovely to have daylight for longer.
So I've been drawing cashew nuts this week along with the plant.  I eat them pretty much everyday, they are such a handy, healthy and tasty snack and I go through bags of them.  Luckily I always keep a good stock in the cupboard.
I did several leaf studies for this as well which I was doing on scrap paper but in the end they looked rather nice altogether so I'm posting it here.  There's more work in progress studies on Instagram.  That's all for now, I hope you had a lovely weekend and got some sunshine too! :)

Hello again,

So it's been a back to normal week busying around.  I also enjoyed some of the sunshine whilst out and about.  I do like spring, starting to see things grow again and seeing the first flowers always gives a bit of a lift I think.
I've been drawing more food related things.  Below is an illustration of my favourite smoothie, Banana, yoghurt and peanut butter.  It is delicious and I do get through a lot of the yoghurt and peanut butter I have to say.  The best thing is to freeze the bananas then you don't need any ice, and adding a splash of milk just thins it a little and gives it a better consistency I think.  Just dollop a bit of it all in whizz it all up and you're good to go! yum!

Above is one of the lovely window boxes I saw whilst out wandering.  I loved the combination of colours and plants.
So, I'm back to a Sunday afternoon of drawing and painting.  Have a good rest of the weekend!

Hello,

I realise some time has passed since I last updated this.  Hopefully now I will be able to post more regularly.  So I've been doing a lot of coffee themed illustrations just lately.  I am certainly no connoisseur but I do like a cup and I enjoyed playing around with a few ideas.  I was hoping to put this up last weekend but unfortunately I got ill which is what often happens just when you get a bit of a break :( so that held work up a little.  I'm almost back to my old self again, it did take it out of me a bit.  Still it did mean spending a few days resting and watching movies which is something I rarely do, (I got a bit addicted to the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marples as you do, I do love those old films).
So without further ado here's a selection of the coffee ideas.  I'm working on some more foodie things so I will post those soon.
Have a good rest of the weekend!

Hello and Happy New Year!  Well the first week is pretty much done.  It's been a good one I have to say pretty busy but lots of fun.
So I had a little break from my regular life over Christmas and whilst at home I got some time to get the sketchbook out.  I was quite excited about this as this is something i rarely get time to do. Most evenings are taken up and so sitting in front of the telly doodling is something i don't do very often.  This was my opportunity.  It was pretty freeing to just draw away doing whatever i decided to do at the time,  and I ended up creating lots of patterns.  I only had limited supplies with me so that restricted what I could do also.  I have to say i thoroughly enjoyed it.  Hopefully I'll be able to carry on this way of working.  I do use sketchbooks but they are always more for ideas and thumbnails than anything else, pretty messy.  Having a bit of time gave me the luxury of creating a potential pretty page :).  Here are some of my favourites.

The last one I did whilst watching The great Gatsby.  I'd never seen it and I loved the party scenes!
Have a good week! :)