January

Hello,

So, January is almost at an end.  The month which I know many think is the worst of the year.  I've actually enjoyed mine, even the cold, (I think this week was the first real cold snap for me).  So, as (in the UK at least) it's a time to be warm and toasty I'm sharing a winter vegetable illustration.  I love root veggies, super easy to cook and very healthy too.  They also have these beautiful rich colours.

Whilst on a healthy theme it's also the time of year when a lot of people get to the gym and go on a bit of a health kick.  I wanted to draw more objects so I decided to draw my trainers (these ones are only a few weeks old so they still look decent).  I wanted to draw them simply using only ink and pen, just as a challenge for myself really. 

Last weekend I also took a trip to the William Morris Gallery it was a beautiful albeit cold day and as the sun was setting I took a quick walk around the gardens.  It's so nice and peaceful there and of course the gallery has a beautiful collection.  

I also visited the Royal Academy to see the Klimt/Schiele drawings.  I really wanted to see these drawings close up.  I think it closes this weekend so if you get the chance go.  

Ok that's it for now.  Have a wonderful weekend!  

Museum doodling

Hello,

I hope you've had a good week.  It's pouring with rain here at the moment which is actually making me feel really nice and cosy, until I have to go out in it.
Last week I visited the Museum of London to sketch.  This is something I would love to do more of so I'm definitely going to find the time to make Museum drawing something I do more often.  It always gives me new ideas and colour combinations and just a fresh approach to my work.  I didn't go with a plan of what to draw I just decided to go with what attracted my attention whilst I was there.  Also, sometimes Museums can be so busy in certain areas it's simply impossible to draw in a relaxed way.  I became obsessed with a cabinet of Mediterranean pots, vases and tiles, they were a joy to draw.  Such beautiful patterns that looked so contemporary.

I only had pencils and pens with me.  I took a selection of colours and then hoped for the best colourwise!  I like working like this, having to make the best of limited supplies.  Then when I came home I worked up the initial sketches with inks, pens and more pencil.  I really enjoyed this process and definitely want to do more.  I've also added these to my website in a new sketchbook section of my portfolio.

I hope you've got a good weekend planned.  I need to do some Christmas shopping and I'm hoping to squeeze in a gallery visit too.  Enjoy your week, and get cosy!

Food illustrations and a lovely weekend

Hello,

I hope you've had a good week.  Today I'm sharing the illustrations I created for this months Women's Health Magazine.  The article is all about trace minerals in food and I do love drawing food!

I really enjoyed working on these, I think they make quite a nice set all together.  I'm especially happy with how the fish, eggs and nuts turned out.  It also gave me the opportunity to draw one of my favourite things, oats, twice :).

I spent some of last weekend with a visit from a lovely friend Kerry Lemon spending time gallerying (with plenty of tea and coffee stops, obviously!)  We did get to see the Picasso exhibition at Tate which I think closes this weekend so go if you have the chance!

We also visited Camden Arts Centre and had a very delicious lunch there in glorious sunshine :).

Ok, that's it for me I'm off to Saturday Bodycombat then back to drawing this afternoon.  Have a lovely weekend whatever you're up to and I'll be back soon!

Exhibition and food illustrations

Hello,

Wow, it's been another lovely hot hot week here.  I can't believe the weather this summer, it's been amazing!  I've got so used to leaving the house without having to worry about taking layers in case it gets cold, it's lovely.
So this week I've been working on some lovely food illustrations for an editorial commission.  I can't wait to show the images as I loved creating them.  I also got out to the Royal Academy to see the Summer Exhibition.  I often miss this but was determined to go this year as Grayson Perry is the curator so I thought I would enjoy it, and it feels like an age since I last went to an exhibition.  I wasn't disappointed.  I took loads of photos so I'll share some here.  My absolute favourite was the incredible knitted and crocheted sculpture Royal Valkyrie by Joana Vasconcelos which fills the octagonal space as you enter.  It's so colourful and delicious, it was a wonderful start to the exhibition.

I also wanted to share a recent iced coffee illustration.  I do love a good coffee, who doesn't?  I drew a load of coffee pots so I thought I'd share those also (I also have a whole bunch of coffee glasses).  I limited myself to only brown rich coffee shades for this illustration.  I really enjoyed drawing the beans and leaves.

After my Royal Academy visit yesterday I also popped to Burlington Arcade and snapped this lovely installation, lots of lovely hanging paper flowers.  Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, they don't do it justice.

So, that's it for now.  I'm off to Bodycombat this morning then back to edit the food illustrations and work on some nature themed work.  I hope you have a lovely weekend whatever you get up to :).

The Cold

Hello,

So, you may have heard that it has been very cold here, (compared to normal for us at least) in the uk. By day two of the snow I was feeling pretty impressed that I'd got the hang of the layering business and was feeling pretty toasty as I trudged out in the snow, but by that point I'd also caught a cold.  I don't tend to pay much attention to these things and assume if I don't pay too much attention it will just go away, but this one has decided to stay for a bit.  Today that has meant a lot of admin tasks have been completed as I haven't really had the concentration for much else.  There is a lot of nose blowing, sore skin and pathetic coughing going on.  I had managed to avoid all colds over winter until this point, whilst people spluttered around me, so I was pretty happy that I had somehow managed to escape all that, but eventually one came.  On a positive note it has meant a lot of sofa sitting with my feet up and plenty of hot drinks :).  Tomorrow I'm hoping I can be in for a day of painting as I think a good nights rest is in order with a good supply of olbas oil to hand!
On another note a couple of weekends ago the weather was still cold but gloriously sunny and I spent a Saturday out in London.  I had guests visiting and one of the places we visited was the Foundling Museum where we saw The Lost Words which was full of glorious illustrations of uk wildlife.

We also popped into the British Museum always worth a visit, (we spent a while looking for Lindow man!) 

I love the colours and shapes in this Grayson Perry vase.

Finally, just incase we forgot in amongst all this snow it is now officially spring in this part of the world! hooray! So here's a few springy flowers from the garden which will be back shortly!  It's always immensely exciting to see these pop up :).

I hope you have a lovely warm (or snowjoyable) weekend, wherever you are :).

Dulwich and Tea

Hello again,

I hope you've had a good week.  January is racing past and it's been going pretty well so far.  I'm creating lots of new work and planning all sorts of things which I'm really excited about.  It's also been (unsurprisingly) very cold, (well I am a wimp with the cold, so very cold for me that is!).  This time of year is a great time to be cosy at home with a nice cup of tea which is what inspired the illustration below.  I do enjoy drawing food and drink and I had fun inventing the cup and teapot design and arranging the composition.

Yesterday I also had a lovely day finally visiting the Tove Jansson exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery. I really enjoyed it, she had a wonderful way with colour and it was great to see a range of work besides what she is best known for.  It was also a beautiful day with a wonderful blue sky so I took the opportunity to go into Dulwich Park for a bit of a wander.  This was one of the first London parks I visited when I first came to London many years ago.  It's quite far for me now so I felt incredibly lucky to be visiting on such a gorgeous day.  It was wonderfully peaceful and very relaxing.  Nature is an amazing thing!  I would have liked to spend longer there (even though it was very cold) but I really wanted to come back to sketch up for some new work I'm doing.

I'm glad I went yesterday because it has been raining most of the day here today so I definitely would not have had such a lovely walk :).

Have a lovely week and I'll be back soon!

Drawing out and about

Hello,

This week I've been busy working on my latest promotional mail out.  That means lots of envelope writing and stuffing, sorting and organising.  This always is a time consuming job, so besides drinking lots of coffee and tea (always essential for such tasks,)  I also took some time to go out drawing.  I've been wanting to go Museum drawing again for ages.  It's something I'd love to do more of but struggle to find the time to do at the moment.  This time I went to the British Museum.  I had hoped to make it to the V&A also, but in the end ran out of time.  I really enjoy wandering around the collections and then picking out what I feel like drawing.  My plan was to do as much as possible at the Museum and then finish off at home.  What I like about this is I'm limited in just how much I can lug around with me, and what is practical, so I take a selection of pencils and pens and then when I arrive I have to work with what I've got.  Obviously there's so much to draw it's hard to know what to pick first but I knew I wanted to draw in the Mexico room where the wonderful pottery vessel was.  There's so much I wanted to draw there so I'm definitely going back.  The image at the bottom is from the Clock gallery.  Again there were lots of beautiful objects in there.  Both of these I then worked into when I got home.

I have more sketches that I still want to work up and lots more I'd like to draw so I will be going back!  

Ok I'm getting back to it, there's still some more envelopes to stuff.  Have a lovely week and I'll be back soon :)

Hello again,

It's been a few cold days here in London but I've braced myself and I finally made it to some exhibitions before they closed today! Hooray!  

Friday I went to see Zaha Hadid: Early paintings and drawings at The Serpentine.  I really wanted to see this as I became fascinated by her paintings after watching a documentary on her a while back.  To get there I had a long walk in Hyde park and by the lake (it was pretty cold!).  I definitely don't allow myself enough time to go walking out and about so I really appreciated it and the odd snowflakes that were falling! 

Saturday afternoon I went to see Anselm Kiefer - Walhalla at the White Cube Bermondsey.  There was a big queue but it moved pretty fast and I'm really happy I went.  I'd read varying reviews of the exhibition but I really loved it.  Especially the huge paintings.  Such fantastic colours and textures.  I've often missed exhibitions in the past because I haven't made time to go and I'm determined not to let that happen anymore!

 By the Serpentine.  I didn't envy them!

Zaha Hadid

Anselm Kiefer

Have a lovely week, 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!