mmmm...

Beautiful and delicious. These are what our veg box brought us this week! They are extremely local (grown by the Dig team themselves!) and are actually the best strawberries I've ever eaten. Nothing is better for a warm summer evening dessert and I had to save these two before we ate them last night so that I could paint their portraits.

Tomatoes in a paper wrap. Straight watercolor with no pencil sketch.

Trusty Nalgene (ml vs. oz.)

Coffee components...

faces

It was the Open Studios weekend at the Bluecoat Print Studio and I was helping out, demonstrating different print techniques for visitors. It was surprising how much I liked some of the results! After all, I don't use mono-printing very often or for serious work. Recently I have been drawing lots of faces, and so I naturally tried some with mono-printing. These are my two favorites and the woman with the red stripe shirt is strangely familiar to me.

My Geranium and a Woman, pencil and watercolor

There is beauty in the detail.

wow!

I've reprinted my owl design on a bunch of new bags. This batch is a bit different than the first as the lines are clearer and stronger. I've screen-printed them by hand using a beautiful turquoise, which looks great on the natural cotton fabric. There is also a two-toned owl now, printed in two shades of turquoise (see second photo down).

Above: Two-toned Owl Bag

As well as new bags, I've made more little journals. They are A6 (approx. 10.5 x 14.5cm) and are made with Fabriano 100% recycled paper, produced in Italy using wind power. Wow! The paper is wonderful for drawing and writing and is acid free.

Above: Gramophone Journals, grey and brown, size A6

I'm currently selling these items and more at the Pad Gallery and Shop in Preston, UK, as well as on my etsy shop. Be sure to have a look!

My Etsy Shop

Pad Gallery and Shop

snails

Coupled, acrylic on card

Couple, acrylic on card

Snail, (bamboo) pen and ink on paper

new paintings

Two new paintings, both acrylic on grey card.

gramo, 4" x 5.5"

bees, 7" x 10"

local

This week I had a few different sources of local food to draw. Firstly, I volunteered at a nearby community allotment and got to take home some lovely rhubarb, mustard leaves, and loads of herbs. Above is a drawing of sage in a jar, which is blooming! The jerusalem artichoke is from our weekly veg box from DIG. The fennel bulb and the fresh garlic where left over from the cooking project that I helped out at. It was a Cracking Good Food event where two chefs taught participants how to make a stir-fry and then they got to eat it! It's a great project and I look forward to helping at more community events and classes. At the end there was extra produce and I was able to take some home... such as the strange fennel bulb below.

Mushrooms from Cracking Good Food.

Check out these sites:

Dig Food

Cracking Good Food

Chorlton Allotment Project