Back in Hove...(Artists Open House @ Christmas!)

The Brighton & Hove artists open houses are back on for Christmas (although only 1 more weekend to go!) A picture tells 1,000 stories so without further ado here are a few of my snaps from the Open House I'm in in Hove. Lots of new Christmas goodies here from stained glass artist Ruth Mullen, hand-painted scarves from Daubs & Dashes, inky line drawings with lots of character from Del Thorpe and lots more! 

See all these artists (and my work too) at Bluebell Would Open House, 45 Westbourne Gardens, Hove, Open 11am- 5pm Sat 10th and Sunday 11th Dec

Photos from top to bottom:
My whole display, a close up of some of my T'shirts, Alexis Rayner's colourful wreaths, Daubs & Dashes scarves and prints, Del Thorpes original drawing, Leonor Berdichevsky's prints, Bluebell Roebucks photography, Ruth Mullan Stained glass, Margaret McGregor Betts printmaking and a close up of my Alice in Wonderland original and a Hot Dogs Cross Stitch.

Huge World Map Collage- Work in Progress

Over the last month or 2, I have been frantically drawing, tracing and cutting away or a giant world map commission. The piece is for a (hopefully very lucky!) childs bedroom and will measure almost 2m when it's complete. I thought I'd share a few Work in Progress shots before I begin the time consuming job of joining all the bits together and the nerve wracking job of sending it off to the printers.

Ps Anyone for a geography joke?

Q: What did the sea say to the shore?
A: Nothing, it just waved!

Sorry!

Art on a Postcard, Cats on a Postcard

I've recently created 2 new original illustrations for postcard exhibitions. Really fun projects and a challenge to get me to finish a collage in a day and at a tiny tiny postcard size!

First up was Postcats, an exhibition organised by Miss Ella Illustration (one of my all time favourite cat illustrators). My very pink design is called I think that we are gonna be friends (White Stripes reference anyone?) about a jumbo sized but friendly black moggy and her smaller tabby buddy sharing a moonlit hug. A whole host of wonderful illustrators have submitted pieces which will be on show from 23rd September at the Norwich Gift Emporium. Well worth a visit if you find yourself in Norwich and fancy seeing over 100 pussycat designs! 

The second piece Murmuring Mermaid, was created for Art on a Postcard, raising money for the Hepatitus C charity and will be on display at the Moniker art fair in October this year. My work is part of a lottery where visitors buy £50 tickets and receive a surprise design from the list of artists taking part. My design is a colourful mermaid hanging out with some decorative and flying fishes. 

To Infinity (Foods) & beyond!

Sorry for the puntastic blog post title. I've got my work up at one of my favourite Brighton cafes, Infinity Foods in the North Laines till 10th September. Here are a few photos of my illustrations adorning the walls. If anyone is interested in my prints or greeting cards of any of my designs, drop me an email or visit my Etsy Shop

  Left to Right: Lido Time, Hegemone, Brighton in Bloom, Alice in Wonderland, Song of the Siren

The Birthday of the Infanta

Left to Right: Song of the Siren, Cats of Cadaques, Rabbitland, Through Rose Tinted Spectacles and Fille Du Cirque Russe

 Song of the Siren

If you can see this view you are almost there!

Check out the inspiration for Brighton in Bloom! And yes Brighton is always this sunny!

Mermaids, narwhals and more cats for in aid of The World Cetacean Alliance

Last weekend Brighton Etsy had a stall of whale themed craft goodies at the annual March of the Mermaids in aid of the WCA (the worlds largest alliance protecting whales, dolphins and porpoises). We're continuing to donate a % of our profits from selected items in our Etsy Shops till the end of the year towards this great cause. I've chosen 3 illustrations; Song of the Siren, Floating Island and Cats of Cadaques, which are all available as cards and limited edition prints. 

Star Girl Reporter Alison Jane Reid (Ethical Hedonist)

I've worked with Alison at the Ethical Hedonist blog for several years now and she recently started work on creating short EBooks to sell featuring some of her favourite interviews. First up her interview wit the late Linda Mc Cartney. My brief was to create an illustration to appeal to men and women showing the sassy but serious journalist as her alter ego, on the way to do an interview. The book in available to download from Amazon.

Life's An Itch

I was contacted last year to create a piece of artwork based on psoriasis, an unusual and quite tricky brief in some respects as the idea was to get across the itch but apart from that the brief was very open. I decided to communicate the itchiness of Psoriasis by through my main inspiration of nature, turning my character into a sort of human cactus, surrounded by bees and hummingbirds that were constantly poking and stinging her. You can see other artists work for Life's an Itch website live.

I was also interviewed about my work by National Psoriasis Foundation (USA)‏ and the results are here.

Back Trip Festival

I created this crazy psychedelic, 1960's flavour design for Back Trip, a Grateful Dead inspired music festival in the USA. It was an ideal project for me, inspired by 60's hippy culture, nature and magical and mysterious elements and it was great fun making the design as weird and wonderful as possible. The brief was quite loose, based around the idea of an electric forest, although there were a few key elements I needed to include such as the Grateful Dead skulls, gnomes on toadstools and Jesus driving a hippy bus! I created the original collage and the agency (JCI Marketing, Redding CA) added in some photographic elements.

Magazine Illustrations for Dobbies & Inner Circle

I've had lots of new editorial illustrations published recently. The first 4 are for Dobbies Magazine (available in Dobbies Garden Centres now) and the article is to encourage children to get into gardening. The projects were easy to make and fun and I wanted this reflected in my designs by including lots of little creatures to keep kids entertained (spot the bees, cat and naughty caterpillar!)

The next illustration is the front cover for Inner Circle, a client I've enjoyed working with several times. The theme of the issue and illustration was technology, in particular apps, so we've got apps for everything from dry cleaning to space ships! It was a really fun project especially making technology out of paper! You can see the whole issue here.

Radio Times Commission

I was delighted to be contacted by the Radio Times a few weeks ago to create a quick turnaround job. The design illustrates accompanies an article on BBC Radio 1 & 1Xtra Stories: Chris Stark’s Dry Diary, as the presenter gives up alcohol for a month to investigate why more young people are abstaining from alcohol altogether. My design focuses on a young women stamping on some (rather scared looking!) alcoholic drinks and to emphasize the foot I gave the whole design a weird looking perspective!

Elephants & Zebras- Giant Animal Murals!

As you might know my elephant created for the Bangkok Elephant Parade is now up for auction online. She and the other eles are at their final exhibition destination at the Riverside Plaza until 15th Feb and is for sale online now. Hope she raises lots of money and goes to a wonderful new home.

I've also had some exciting news regarding another animal. I recently submitted a design to Zany Zebras, a parade of zebras coming to Southampton and organised by Marwells Zoo. My design Zebbie-go-round, based on a carousel has been picked from the submissions. Really happy to have been picked and look forward to seeing it come to life and raise money for the endangered Grevy’s zebras.