Shine

Shine is my first experiment with wood engraving produced at a workshop run by the Bath Artist printmakers. The block of box wood was tiny about 3" by 2" so it was a real effort of concentration to make the marks work where I wanted them to and not keep slipping. I really enjoyed trying this and playing with mark making and black and white trying to describe light and form.

SNAP

Created for Illustration Friday some time ago- the subject that week was SNAP. I was inspired by a particularly wonderful corkscrew branch on the magnolia tree in my parents garden which really grew like this! The bird was going to be a wood pidgin but morphed into a sort of blue turkey. Painted with gouache and some collage pieces. Snap the moment when everything can change!

Bathing Beauties

Whilst sketching around Bath I came across a group of women outside the Spa standing on the street in their swimming costumes, the fire alarm had gone off and they had been evacuated from the building behind them. An employee came out and gave them all towels which made them look very statuesque so I could not resist doing a quick sketch of them, lucky for me I was sitting in the window of a shop being used as a pop up art gallery so I could happily draw them unobserved.

Sand and Soil

This is the finished Design used for the album cover for Sand and Soil by Saul Rose and Maclain Coulston, printed as an edition of 30, as the lino cut gradually degrades from the pressure of the press so only a small edition is possible, but as it is also a monoprint each one is unique.

Here is the link on iTunes

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/sand-and-soil/id307619550

Preliminary Lino Cut for Sand and Soil. I like the strong graphic lines in the bottom half but it does not tie with the top half of the design. I re did the piece as a Lino/ Monoprint making the design more cohesive.

Post Card Art

This was a little acrylic painting I did some time before my little girl was born and I had the time to sit and paint for hours, hopefully that time is coming back a little and I will be able to set up my little painting corner in the kitchen again. I loved doing little postcard pieces - I like the idea of creating a work that you then relinquish a tie to and it goes off into the world hopefully to be enjoyed by someone. This postcard was for a postal art project called Post Due, as was the one below.

Postcard made rom acrylic paint and a the packaging from a pack of playing cards found in the Souk in Fez. On the back it had the Tiger looking very well fed and a little pile of boots and a whip.

Another post card I did for Post Due - inspired by a very wet English summer and a new red tea pot which I was very proud to find in my local charity shop. I drew myself having a nice cup of lady like tea whilst the rain poured down outside, decided to give myself a rather ascot inspired hat too as this post card was going to be taking a trip to New York.

I really enjoy using felt tips though you have little colour control, I was watching a documentary about Taste by Gayson Perry the other night and saw he was drawing with felt tips although rather nice professional artist quality ones, wow he can really draw, and such an aw inspiring sense of composition too! anyway this Card was heading to Kansas so I drew some one a little like myself strumming a ukulele some what like the one I have- my felt tips were WH smith cheapo's and the colours are rather harsh so I got very cosmic and colourful trying to make it work. Maybe too twee me thinks.

Air Mail