Interview Time!

Last week I was contacted by Renderforest, a video production company who like to feature artists who inspire them on their blog, so I was pretty flattered to be part of it. They asked me some great and some quite unusual questions too (one was about the smell of my artwork..!)

Q: Do you consider yourself a creative person? Please explain your answer :) 

A: Of course! I come up with all the ideas for my illustrations (and create them too out as paper-cuts!) I think you need to be a creative person to be any kind of artist who creates work from scratch.

Q: Do you strive to be unique in your creative endeavors? What is your favorite part of making illustrations? 

A: I do, which is why I started making my illustrations into paper-cuts, rather than exclusively using Photoshop or Illustrator. I like the wonky edges, mistakes and textures you get with collage, which are more difficult to achieve on the computer. I love when I've got an idea and have started to cut the design out of bits of paper. It's quite relaxing really (until I drop a piece!)

Q: What is your favorite color? Does this color describe your as a person? Please explain.

A: Purple. I'm not sure but I guess purple is a little eccentric.

If you'd like to read the rest of the interview visit their blog

Brighton Wedding Invitations

Last month I created a personalised wedding invitation design for a couple getting married in Brighton Pavilion in spring. I’ve included several of the iconic landmarks of Brighton too; the seaside, West pier, deckchairs, beach huts, plus the lovely couple themselves and their pussycats too! It was a really nice project and I always enjoy using lots of bright spring colours (and draw Brighton of course)!

If you are looking for a similar piece please do get in touch.

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!

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.

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.

Wedding Illustration Private Commission

I recently had the pleasure of creating a bespoke illustration for a client whom I'd worked for some years back. It was a gift for her Mum and husband to celebrate their wedding in the summer. Always lovely to work on these kind of projects knowing it will end up on someones wall (plus the added pressure that it was just before Christmas and the piece needs to be just right!) As it turned out they loved it, so thought I'd share the results. If you are looking for a personalized illustration (from A4 size upwards!) please do get in touch. I've also included a couple more recent bespoke illustrations too!

Brighton Illustrations

I've been creating a number of illustrations this summer inspired my now home city of Brighton. Although the Pavilion is very famous it's still one of my favourites, but I've also been drawing the Fountains, Pells Pools in Lewes and the um seagulls. The 2 finished designs were also influenced by vintage travel posters.
Lido time is now available in my online Shops NOTHS and Etsy

Top Sante Dreams Illustrations

I was asked back to create 2 more illustrations for this months Top Sante magazine. The feature I was given to illustrate was on dreams, taking control of them to solve problems, in therapy and  to wake up happier. The lady in the piece is managing to harness the power of dreams to  get over a relationship. In the second smaller illustration the same character is dreaming of a scenario she wants to solve so has taken an image of the problem to bed with her to help her mind focus on it when she dreams. The illustrations are in November's issue of the magazine.

Art Exhibition at Flaxon Ptootch

This month I'm exhibiting a couple of original collages (The Witch & the Rainbow Cat and Stereovenus) and lots of new and older prints at Flaxon Ptootch, a trendy hairdressers and art gallery in Kentish town. It's great to be able to display the originals collages and show how they were created (and how much work went into them!) as well as a couple of newer pieces like Baby Jane in Acapulco and Song of the Siren.

Alongside my work are the paintings, drawings and prints of my talented friend Hannah Pratt. Her work like mine is very brightly coloured and focuses on creating imaginary worlds although she's also a huge sci-fi fan as you can tell by some of her designs names!

The exhibition is on till the 10th November. If you're interested in any of the pieces on show please do get in touch with the staff at Flaxon Ptootch or myself or Hannah. (My prints retail from £25 for a mini print, £100 for a 40 by 50 cm print unframed and £135 for a framed one). Below are some photo's of the private view from a couple of weeks back- thanks to everyone who came, especially Carl 2 Bob for providing the tunes!