An Illustration of My Allotment

This has been the first full year of having my own allotment, so here is a little illustration to celebrate. It's been a hard year for gardeners apparently, but I did manage to successfully grow a few tasty things like cabbage greens, sunflowers, parsnips, potatoes, lettuces and courgettes amongst other things that I wouldn't have room for in my courtyard garden at home. For the purpose of the drawing I've been a little bit creative with the truth...

My pumpkins weren't as huge as this!

My watering can isn't as funky as this.

There is an allotment cat who always says hello when I'm there. I don't know it's real name but I call him Licorice. He's really black and white with a big black patch on his mouth and I've never seen him wear a sun hat.

Recent Watercolours

Winter Garden

Badger Nap

Red Cello Blue Boots

I thought I'd post some images of the watercolour prints that are up in Pensieri over Christmas. I've no idea if anyone will like them enough to buy any of the prints, but at least it was enjoyable painting in my evenings. My fella has been mega busy trying to finish his new album, so I've needed something to do. It's definitely more interesting than watching telly. My favourite one is 'Badger Nap'... Because I really love badgers!

Illustration Friday: Zoom

This is an A4 watercolour and pencil illustration of Midnight Mary zooming around on her motorcycle with her cat, Blanko clinging on at the back.

From the 25th November, it will up in an exhibition at The Place Theatre in Bedford along with other work from the Circus of Illustration. It's part of The New Writes Nights, hosted by Novus Theatre who  want to zoom in on new local playwrights.

Circus of Illustration at Pensieri

Pensieri (34 Ram Yard, Bedford) is one of Bedford’s fantastic independent shops. A place for delicious coffee, scrumptious cakes, remarkable gifts… And illustration!

The latest exhibition to grace the walls of Maria’s gorgeous boutique is from The Circus of Illustration a collective of professional illustrators from Bedfordshire. That includes me! We've been promoting illustration through various weekend workshops in our town, like at the Drawing Room on Mill Street or at the latest Pride In Bedford mural in Queen’s Park.

On display, there is a mixture of beautiful original art and prints for sale, so do drop in and treat yourself to coffee and cake and enjoy the exhibition. It’s a great opportunity to pick up some unique presents for Christmas.

Here's some photos taken by Andrew Foster of the gallery wall. Many thanks to the talented Kristian Purcell of The Higgins for helping us do the hanging. We would have been lost without him!

Snowmen

Here are a few snowman illustrations ready for Bunnycup. Again there are 12 in the set and Ashlea should have them ready for machine embroidery users in time for Christmas.

Pensieri Preview

Red Cello Blue Boots 

Winter Garden

On the 14th of November the Circus of Illustration will be exhibiting some of our work in Pensieri, one of Bedford's gorgeous independent cafes/ gift shops. It will be up until January.

I've been working really hard on getting some work together, I have some linocuts and a couple of embroideries, but it's the painting that's been keeping me busy in my evenings. As my day to day artwork is digital I think that illustrating in my free time needs to be created away from the computer.

These pieces are nearly done, just a few touch ups in Photoshop and I think I'm there. I've one more watercolour that I want to finish then I should be ready to frame them. This body of work has no theme, I just like drawing cute girl characters. I have no message to the world, I'm not an true artist, just someone who gets her kicks from drawing things that look cute.