Happy Christmas, one and all!

'Christmas in Exeter Street' by Diana Hendry and illustrated by John Lawrence, is my favourite Christmas book. The story of Mrs Mistletoe and the ever expanding collection of aunts, uncles, friends and strangers that fills her house on Christmas Eve, perfectly captures the spirit of the season and is guaranteed to send the whole family to bed with a warm, fuzzy feeling.
If your house is feeling a little crowded with seasonal visitors, take comfort in the fact that, at least you haven't had to resort to stacking your aunts on the kitchen shelves.....

Christmas gift ideas

I've been doing a bit of online browsing with Chrismas in mind, and found a friends shop /lillystration on etsy. I have fallen in love with these georgeous little animal broaches and think they would be perfect little presants for posting, or you could suggest them as stocking fillers to Father Christmas.....?

Seasons Greetings!

Just realized it's been ages since I posted anything on here so I thought I'd share a little Christmassy image to get us in the mood.

Illustration Friday." Stripes"

Illustration Friday... Scary!!

because I've never really lost that bewilderment that small children feel when normally sane and responsible adults suddenly present them with burning sticks that shoot sparks!!

Seasonal transitions

Here we are in the midst of Autumn. The clocks have gone back and the half term is over. It takes me till about now every year  to stop mourning the passing of Summer and start to look forward to Winter, with all its beauty and celebrations.
Fitting then, that I joined  Totnes Transition Town one sunny day last week, in an exercise to imagine a vision of the future.
Local artists, children, and anyone else who wanted to, were asked to draw, using recycled cardboard, charcoal and paint, how they imagined the future to look. Whether it was the clothes they would wear, the houses the would live in, or how they would get around.
There were Viking space helmets, rocket ships, visions of sustainable living, including wind farms and water wheels, and a very fine and completely practical bicycle-powered hand glider (mine!)
Much fun was had, much charcoal was spread around and hopefully, it made us think a little bit about how our lives might change in a world without without fossil fuel.

Life up the hill.

My new front door! (my window is the second floor)

view from the fire escape

I 've been a little quiet for a week or two as I've been settling into my lovely new studio space on Totnes High Street and trying to remember where I put everything. So I thought it was time I showed you  round a bit , and let you see what I'm doing in it at themoment.

 

business as usual....

meeting room for important clients!

Pirates Ahoy!

It has just come to my notice  that Redbubble have featured my Pirate Hamster in their designs for International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Hamster is my favourite Pirate Animal design (although he has some pretty cool friends!) and I was even more excited when I discovered that you can now order iPhone cases as well as Tshirts, babygrows, cards and all the other groovy stuff.

I'll be putting Pirate Hamster on an iPhone case this afternoon, and maybe a couple of other designs too, go and have a look, remember, Christmas is coming!

Illustration Friday "hibernate"

If I were a bear, this is how I would do it.

New T shirts and cards.

 Camille

 Eloise

 Rosamund. 3 new cards on Redbubble.

I've just added a couple of Tshirts and some cards to my Redbubble shop. You can now buy stuff right here on my blog, check out the new pages,"buy Tshirts at Redbubble" and "buy cards at Redbubble" It really couldn't be easier. Hope you like them.
By the way, the original paintings will soon be available from my etsy shop.

ferocious!

One from the sketch book for Illustration Friday. She may be small but I definitely wouldn't mess with her!

Moving space....

At the end of September I'll be moving out of my little studio and up the hill to a big room I'll be sharing with some other "creative types". Although I'm excited about the move, I can't deny that I'll miss the friends I've made while I've been here- Jock, the annoyingly brilliant comic book artist who lives upstairs and who provided my kettle, Alan, the writer from over the road, Paula, who had this studio before me and brings us lunch on Tuesdays, Cathy the story teller, who shared her stories of Charlie Crow, and all the people who've just popped in to say hello over the years.
Thankfully I won't be saying goodbye to Wendy, who has kept me company and away from facebook so often in the past, as I'll be visiting her in her new studio, where we shall continue to throw paint around and talk about cake and ebay.

 packing boxes.....

So I'm having a farewell Open Studio all next week. I'll be displaying some of the illustrations I've done recently, and I'll have some paintings and cards for sale too. Pop in if you're passing, Jocks kettle is always on!

Mesmerising....

It's Illustration Friday  time again...

AOL Blog- just when you thought it was safe to go out and illustrate....

Illustrators beware! The AOL blog today suggests that artists are being targeted by a scam.
If true, I think the scammers must have been miss-informed about how much illustrators earn!

Mysterious.

This weeks offering for Illustration Friday....wait, what was that noise......?

disguise!

I've missed a few Illustration Fridays during the summer, so I thought I'd sneek a quick one in...

Results!

I'm feeling for all those out there who are waiting for exam results around now. I wanted to make a congratulations card, but I couldn't do that without making a commiserations card as well. Please feel free to print one of these out if it is appropriate, with my very best wishes!

Guernsey bound!

I'm off to Guernsey this week, visiting good friends and fondly remembered places. I'm particularly looking forward to the South Show which has, in previous visits, provided the most entertaining day of the holiday. I kid you not, The Vegetable Sculpture display was one of  the funniest things I have ever seen.

Illustration Friday "Perennial"

Well, I'm not much of a gardener, but I do know that even perennials need a bit of looking after.

Black and White

This week I'm all about black and white and pen and ink.
Here is a selection... there are many,many more to come. I'm dreaming in black and white at the moment!

Illustration Friday "Gesture"

I was very flattered this week, to find myself featured on Beth Niquette's blog under "FATuesday" ( Featured Art Tuesday)  as an artist who makes her laugh. I can think of no greater complement and so I dedicate this weeks entry for Illustration Friday to you Beth, as a "gesture" of thanks. See what I did there....?

Tea party.

I had a lovely birthday tea party at the weekend. There was plenty of cake, including a fabulous chocolate/berry gateau provided by my friend Wendy, and wonderful flowers and prezzies like this beautiful cat from Jane Cabrera.

The chocolate/berry gateau being appreciated!