It's tomorrow night!!  Come of down to the Hardy Tree Gallery in London town for an evening of beautiful woodland inspired illustration, music and drinks.

Poster design by the ever-talented Katy Christianson

down in the woods...

It seems rare at the moment that I get to sit down and indulge in illustrating my very favourite of things; wild flowers, trees, woodland birds, tiny houses, inspirational quotes from great thinkers, so I jumped leapt at the chance to exhibit with some of my favourite ladies at the Hardy Tree Gallery in London next week.

WildWood: An Illustration Exhibition brings together six illustrators from the Drawn in Bristol studio in Bristol, who have all produced work exclusively for the show based around themes of woodland and wilderness, combining painting, typography and screen printing alongside digitally and hand-crafted work to showcase some of Bristol's up-and-coming illustration talent.

The gallery can be found just outside St. Pancras station in London, and will be running from Thursday 29 November to 24 December.  I will blog the exhibition poster shortly!

This is one of my pieces, based on the beautiful quote from the brilliant JRR Tolkien, 'Not all those who wander are lost.'

...

For the past few years, a very good friend of mine has kept me in regular supply of Computer Arts magazine, so I'm more than a bit excited to have been featured on their blog today as part of the 100 Houses publicity, raising money and awareness for Shelter.  You can view the post here, where you'll get to see Bristol based image maker Slumber's beautiful drawing.

Hooray!  Thanks guys!

the big house

I have recently finished illustrating this house which will be joining approximately ninety nine other houses of all shapes and sizes at the Bristol Tobacco Factory's upcoming exhibition 100 Houses on 16 November.  I am incredibly excited to be sharing wall space with so many extraordinary talents!

My house, which started life in a yurt in Wales, is based on 'The Big House' from the novel Evening is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan, a superb tale set in surburbian Malaysia.  The bright kingfisher blue house, the biggest on the street, and the subject of many tall tales from the prying eyes of its neighbouring homes, houses a complex and quite tragically dysfunctional family, all of whom are dreaming of escape.

Pick up a copy if you can, the writing is very compelling, intelligent and very beautiful.

BUNT

So glad this is finally finished!  After a few minor disasters in the screen printing realm, I have completed my piece of wooden bunting for Bristol's BUNT exhibition, which will be hosting around seventy of these exciting triangles across four venues (Arnolfini, At-Bristol, Colston Hall & M Shed) from June 9-17.  I've seen some rather spectacular ones, and can't wait to see them all together!

taking shape...

Currently designing a piece of wooden bunting for Bristol's forthcoming BUNT exhibition, for Bristol's Big Green Week.  Each wooden triangle, designed by lots of different illustrators, will depict an endangered or threatened species found in the South West.  I have chosen to screen print the Cornish Chough, and am looking forward to giving him a glorious red beak...if I can only get the drawing right!!  I will update you with my progress...(eek).

In other news, it's your last chance to enter my little bag giveaway!  Just post a comment here for your chance to win a hand-screen-printed tote bag.   I will be deeply flattered.

I hope you're all having a glorious sunny day!  I will be getting a taste of the sunshine at the recycling centre (exciting, I know.  It is worrying how much I am looking forward to ousting the huge mound of recycling that has been slowly taking over our kitchen while the car has been out of action.  We cannot move for empty plastic bottles).

closing time

Thank you to everyone who wandered down to the Chalk and Cheese exhibition this week!  I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed watching people peering at the artwork whilst chomping on stilton and cheddar.  I am in deep admiration of Amber Grayson (and her team of helpers) for fusing the whole thing together.

If you missed it, please have an ogle at the blog to see what the illustrators of Bath School of Art and Design have to offer...!

chalk and cheese

Come and feast your eyes upon  some lovely, clever illustration by the peeps at Bath Spa!  BE THERE - or miss out on free cheese!

Poster design by Tor Sindall

the stars shine all day too

(Image pinched from this website)

Just to get across just how astonishing Rob Ryan's 'The Stars Shine All Day Too' exhibition was last week, I thought I'd sneak in this beautiful image.  The little gallery space on Dover Street in London's Piccadilly played host to several of Rob's large scale paper-cuts.  Each one contained a crazy amount of detail and an enchanting night-time wintery feel.  This one was by far my favourite (although I changed my mind several times before reaching this conclusion).


Thank goodness for the internet.  I spend so much of my time in galleries trying to commit every detail to memory for fear that I will forget something.

It looks like there are a couple of nice exhibits in Bristol next week, so I'll let you know how I get on with those!  If that wasn't already enough to entice me, I'm going to see a giant pin-hole camera in a tower!