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.'

grrr

The little toasty bear face at the top of the page might be a familiar sight to some of you; the original bear toast has certainly been doing the rounds on Tumblr!  Anyway, the kind folks at Bear Nibbles put out a post on Facebook appealing for photographs of other people's bear toast attempts, so I keenly sent in this little guy (I went for a 'here's one I prepared earlier' sort of approach), and was rewarded with a lovely little postcard and a delicious mango flavour Yoyo!

Those of you who know me well will know that I can normally be found snacking on some sort of rabbit food.  Dried fruit.  I can't get enough of the stuff!  If you've ever bypassed these little snacks in the supermarket because you thought they were for kids, stop doing that!  They're delicious, and you even get a brightly coloured fact card inside (...did you know that polar bears have two sets of eyelids?).

Thanks Bear!

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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.

Autumn makes me happy.

a very british, winterish sort of holiday

Photos courtesy of J Watts

For the past few days, I have adopted a lifestyle that any hungry, adventuring, book reading, fireplace dwelling hobbit would be proud of, in the heart of the Black Mountains in Wales.  I can tell I'm going to miss the dewy, lush, mossy landscapes and candle lit suppers, but am quietly relieved to be rid of the bonfire smell that was clinging to my clothes (however much I love it), and to have quick, easy access to tea making facilities once again!  I haven't quite re-acquanited myself with my sketchbook yet, but I'm (almost...ish) raring to go!

I have just impulse-bought an album by Bristol based Rozi Plain after hearing a beautiful song of hers on the radio...I urge you to go and check her out!