It's 2018 - Happy New Year!

So, another year is upon us, which means another chance to consider what's past and embrace what's to come.

I've certainly been doing my fair share of that this past week and have a lot of plans for the coming year.  To help me along, I've been working through The Design Trust's planner for creatives: Dream Plan Do.  It's a truly wonderful little planner that has really got me thinking and believe me, I need something to help me make sense of my journey and organise my time (not something that comes very naturally)!  

First up for me this year is Mats Bootcamp starting on the 8th January.  It runs for 5 months with just one assignment each month and is something I've started to participate in annually.  I can hardly wait for it to begin, it's full of inspiration and I always come away feeling enriched and with new friends.  But in the meantime, I'm looking at using new skills I've learnt in the past year to revisit old work, I guess we'll see what happens!

For now, my wish is for 2018 to be full of creativity, happiness and success to you all!

Merry Christmas Folks!

As 2017 begins to draw to a close, it's a good time to reflect... preferably in front of a log fire with plenty of mulled wine!

It's not been the most creatively productive year for me, as family life has been so demanding.  But, I do feel like I've channelled my energy into the right places.  This December though, I've found myself happily back in the flow of painting and have spent most of my studio time concentrating on Christmas designs.  I signed up with Victoria Johnson at http://www.victoriajohnsondesign.com to take her course in 'Creating Christmas' which has been thoroughly enlightening and inspirational in equal measures.  She's running a second course starting on 15th January which I recommend signing up for!

So I leave you below with a series of my Christmas paintings and wish you all a very merry festive season! 

EXMOOR Gin Label Design

Well, I'm not entirely sure where the last 3 months have gone and alas, I must admit I seem to have got somewhat left behind on the #100dayproject but, nevertheless I have been creating!  My latest project is the design below for a local gin label here on Exmoor.  The family commissioning the project have links to Ireland and the label is inspired by a certain misbehaving ancestor who was arrested for distilling Poitín a notoriously strong spirit made from potatoes and barley, basically the Irish equivalent of moonshine.  The gin itself is currently in production and should be available locally sometime soon.  In the meantime, I have another couple of projects to keep me busy and I really should get back to my #100dayproject ... not to worry though ... only another 95 days to go!

Mats Bootcamp 2017 and #the100dayproject

Having been tied up at home with my little people, it's been a while since my last blog post.  But, at last I'm finding enough time to absorb myself in making art once more and realise how much I've missed it!  Although I'm a little behind, I'm joining in with the #the100dayproject   the idea is to post something everyday, for 100 days.  Below are my first 5 paintings. I've chosen the theme 100 days of flora and fauna.  You can follow along on my Instagram account.

I'm also taking Mats Bootcamp again this year with the wonderful Lilla Rogers.  This months assignment is self reflective... more to follow on that but for now, I will wish you a very happy Easter and leave you with my mer-swan Illuminated letter 'S' for the first initial in my name.

MATS Children's Book Illustration - Ada Lovelace

Over the past few weeks, I've been completely absorbed in the latest https://makeartthatsells.com class: Illustrating Children's Books.

The course is utterly jam-packed with fantastic content to work through and each week there is a deadline for submitting your assignment.  It's taught by the magical Lilla Rogers and Children's Book Art Director, Zoe Tucker.  I must admit, I've found it very hard to keep up with the pace, partly due to my own time restrictions and the talent in the group is quite extraordinary.  It's wonderful having my news feed full of such utterly inspiring art everyday.

At the beginning, we had a choice of 3 texts and to start with, I have chosen Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron and a most inspiration woman, attributed to developing the first ever computer in 1842.  I was excited to research Ada, partly because I simply love history and partly because I know I need to work on developing my people drawing skills.

The first few weeks have been all about character design and development, I have discovered a new-found respect for children's book illustrators, my goodness it's so hard!

Time for Tea

Thrush with Crown and Flowers Watercolour

Sweet Williams & Cosmic Serpent Letter S

English Garden Flowers Watercolour Painting Inspiration

Inspirational Packaging

It's hard to believe that the Summer holidays are almost over and school starts in just 2 weeks.   I must admit I was rather surprised when I noticed just how long it's been since my last blog post.  I have however, been rather busy quietly fitting in creative time over the last few weeks.  I entered the Global Talent Search with the wonderful Lilla Rogers and although I didn't get through to the shortlisted 50 for the second round, I did learn so much in the process.  The assignment was to produce a tea cup, saucer and napkin with hand lettering, here's the piece I submitted and a close up of the design on the tea cup.

In the lead up to receiving the first assignment we were given a series of 5 preparation exercises.  The first 3 of which were packaging research, colour palette inspiration and an illustration of the letter 'S'.  My letter 'S' is of sweet williams, sacred symbols and a cosmic serpent.

The 50 finalists produced some really amazing work, check out the gallery here: https://www.facebook.com/LillaRogersGlobalTalentSearch/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1078343725585673

The second assignments are due in this Monday 29th August at which point the judges have to pick just 5 finalists with a 6th being chosen by the voting public.  Very exciting, can't wait to see what they come up with.