bees and books

I heard a radio podcast (NPR's On Point) recently about bee farming in the US and was fascinated. I found some interesting bee websites and quickly painted a few of my favorite images. The more I learn about bees the more interesting they are, and the more noticeable, too!

I also want to share this great video of the living roof above the place where I work, Unicorn Co-op in Chorlton, Manchester, UK. The shop is an amazing organic grocery, owned and operated completely by it's members. It installed a living roof, which I find incredible and inspiring. During our breaks we can go out and sit on the deck, looking at the tiny pond, plants, and the bees!

Check out the video: Living Roof

Film made by Austin Clare, music composed by Sam Eardley.

Also...

In the spring I contributed illustrations to a charity called The Reader Organisation, which promotes reading and bringing people to together to read. Their book is called A Little, Aloud and is being published by Chatto & Windus (a Random House group) with an expected availability date of September 2010. The book is a collection of poetry and excerpts from a variety of authors. Here is a link to the organisation's website and the book's Amazon page. It has been a pleasure to work with The Reader and for such an important cause, and I look forward to seeing the book in a few months!

The Reader Organisation

A Little, Aloud

Here are a few of my illustrations...

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

more food more fun

radish

This week's veg box has brought some beautiful things. Locally grown potatoes, lettuce, purple carrots, and radishes! (as well as some funky looking jerusalem artichokes that I attempted to draw) Some of the radishes became my lunch, but those that survived became a still life.

I really love the color and shape of these strange little things. I don't think that I've ever bought radishes before and am so happy that I am getting these surprises every week.

I've also created a portfolio on the Association of Illustrator's website.

To see it click here!

lovely rhubarb

Coffee

I am using some time to explore the varieties of mark-making as well as strengthening my drawing skills. This week I have been doing a lot of drawing with both pencil and pen and ink, and some painting in gouache. I have been using paper in different shades of grey, green, blue, and brown, which are wonderful colors to paint and draw on. It has been so fun to experiment, to draw whatever comes to mind, and to make closer study of form, color and light.

Seedlings (from imagination)

Carrots/Parsnips (from memory)

Lovely Rhubarb (from veg box)

We have started getting a weekly veg box and I love the surprise of what is inside. This was the first week and we got white sprouting broccoli, beetroot, and rhubarb. How strange! The rhubarb was drawn from observation with pencil and gouache. I have decided to make a weekly task of creating a drawing/painting/representation of our veg box surprise!

(And later today I'm going to make rhubarb and ginger muffins.)

snail

New painting: Carrier of Houses, watercolor on paper, 25 x 30 cm

also...

Group mural outside our show Proof at the Arena Gallery.

Phillip Marsden's excellent addition to the mural: the Liverpool Illustrators!

Thank you to everyone who made it to the pv and to see the exhibition. The last day of the show is the 9th of May, which coincides with an event downstairs at Leaf Tea Bar.

fond of

This new painting is called Fond Of and will be exhibited in the upcoming Liverpool Illustrators exhibition Proof, at the Arena Gallery in Liverpool.

Private viewing Thursday 22 April 6-8pm (w/ drinks and homemade cakes!)
Open Thursday - Saturday 11am-5pm
Open for 'Make Sundays' along with Arena open studios Sunday 9 May

Check the Arena Gallery site for more info:

Arena Gallery

rent in rotterdam