Birds, Carry Akroyd And More Birds...

A bird nesting in your tree hair can never be a bad thing. I like the poem but you might need to click on the image to enlarge it as the text is quite small here.

I like the idea of birds offering each other gifts as in this digital artwork

A very decorative pen and ink bird drawing

These five characters saw life originally as a pen and ink drawing which I decided to colour digitally but with a more retro palette than my normal one.

The following images are some of Carry Akroyd's beautiful paintings and prints.

A selection of greetings cards which are printed from original machine embroideries. Not sure if I can bear to part with them though.

The wooden heart is Elm and I couldn't resist it. Elm wood is becoming scarce in England now since all the elm trees were decimated in the 60s and 70s due to Dutch elm disease.

View over the Fingest valley. You can just see the church in the middle distance but you will see it more clearly if you click on the photo

Fingest Church where the cream teas will be held on Sunday

I had a lovely day out on Friday at a local craft show at a beautiful little village called Stonor. It is in a very steep and heavily wooded valley and is a wonderful place to be. I think it has a very special atmosphere and energy and apparently originally had a megalithic stone circle, the site of which is now occupied by a large mansion belonging to the Stonor family. They have occupied the house for over 800 years which must be something of a record. I took some great photos of the house but unfortunately I had the camera on the wrong setting and they were whited out. Anyway, trust me, it is a wonderful place.

The craft fair is always a joy, being very well organised and having a good variety of art and craftwork. It is held in huge marquees on the steep side of a hill, but I think they kindly make sure the cows and sheep haven't been in the field for some time prior to the fair. Could be very messy otherwise. I made some very nice (I think) purchases, two of which I am having sent to me by post so that should be something to look forward to. As usual I bought a variety of greetings cards, a few of which I have illustrated here.

On the way home I stopped off at another quintessential English village called Fingest. It is famous for having an 11th century double saddle-backed church, one of only two in the country. Unfortunately for me the chuch was locked but it is open this Sunday for cream teas in the churchyard. I have been lucky enough to sample these teas in the past and they are extremely good. People of other countries must think drinking tea and eating homemade cakes in a churchyard is a very English eccentricity and I have to agree, but it is really enjoyable. Lots of interesting gravestones to read while you are eating....lol

Artwise, I have included another favourite painter and printmaker called Carry Akroyd. She lives in rural Northamptonshire and has an enduring love of nature, animals and the countryside, as you can see if you take a look at her art. She works in several media including acrylics, watercolour, linocuts and etchings. Her work is vivid and very detailed. I have seen her originals in an exhibition in London and they are gorgeous close up. Her website is a joy and can be found here. Well worth investigating.

I have also been busy with a couple of digital drawings and two pen and ink drawings. I particularly like my lady with the bird in her tree hairdo. I thought I would add a little poem which seemed to suit the picture. I have only just noticed that all my work this week contains birds. What would I do without them?

Finally thanks to the lovely lady who added me to her page on the StumbleUpon website. I got masses of hits for this blog and also my website.

"Love-in-a-mist" and Petra Borner

Tiny Dancer drawing

This was originally intended as a greetings card design

A tale in the telling

The love-in-a-mist flowers I grew from seed.

The following images are all Petra Borner's. The final one is one of her embroideries.

I am sitting typing this blog at 00.30 am. Far too late but I have got behind with everything and I did want to do it today...well actually it is tomorrow now but never mind. I have been browsing the internet and found the revamped website of one of my favourite illustrators (yes I know I say that about all illustrators I come across but this one is right at the top.) Her name is Petra Borner and she is a Swedish illustrator living in the UK. I came across her work quite a while ago but she has become much more popular now and her work is popping up everywhere. I recognise her style easily these days. I suppose her style is very contemporary with lots of wonderful up to the minute colour combinations and wonderfully clean lines and great design. Yes, you can tell I am a fan. I have illustrated this blog with a few of her works but you must visit her website here to see it all and there is a lot there to see. Oh and I love the way she draws hands too. You can see from my tiny dancer that I haven't worried too much about realistic looking hands with this one. Oh and I forgot to mention that she is a blogger too so check it out.

Since last year since I came across some beautiful photos of "love-in-a-mist" or nigella as it is otherwise known on Flickr, I have wanted my own crop to take some photos of. I just love these flowers completely. They are beautiful blues and creamy whites and quite complicated flower heads. The little buds are secreted away in a cocoon of ferny fronds and burst forth to give the loveliest blooms. They look pretty good in photos too. The flowers are also surrounded by these fronds, hence the name "love-in-a-mist" which I think is beautifully romantic. See what you think of my pictures of them anyway.

Just a short blog today as it really is sooooo late - night night.

Bird Ladies and Cressida Bell

Martha

In The Garden Of AlliumsCressida Bell Decorative Art

I visited a local textile artist last Sunday as part of the Bucks Open Studio event, whereby artists and craftspeople open up their studios to display their works and show how they are made. The lady was Mary Gamester and her home studio was a revelation of colour and texture and form. I really enjoyed my time with her which extended to about an hour and a half. We had a great deal in common in artistic terms and also in our interest in churches, stained glass windows etc. She has a wonderful collection of beautiful sketch books with wonderful drawings from her visits to India and other countries. Her work in textiles is very varied and included wall hangings, boxes, bags, covered books and clothes. A veritable treasure trove. This very talented lady also teaches her subjects to others. I left her studio inspired to create.

One of my favourite decorative artists is the well-known Cressida Bell. She is related to both Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell of Bloomsbury fame. She applies her designs to all sorts of items and also to interiors etc. I love her bright, graphic style and stylised patterns. I found one of her books at a charity shop some years ago and I have included some photos of her work. Her website here is beautiful and well worth a visit. Another very talented lady.

I finished my drawing of "the girl with a bird on her head" called "In The Garden Of The Alliums". I found the alliums extremely hard to draw and make them realistic looking so I have just made them stylised instead. Have a look and see what you think. I quite enjoyed drawing ladies with birds so I have just completed another one called "Martha". This one is much simpler and an altogether better design I think. I have also included in the picture the photo in You magazine which sparked the idea off and a picture of a wonderful old outfit in a fashion book which I got from the library the other day. I wanted Martha to look a bit old fashioned and be simply dressed. Don't ask me where the bird comes in though? I am on a bit of a roll now and I will probably do a couple more lady and bird pictures. The two just seem to go together...lol.

I have also posted a sketch of a bird and a group of stylised trees. I like this sketch and will probably draw it as a finished piece of artwork.

Inuit Women's Art and yet more trees....!

This is the finished three tree drawing. I really enjoyed this piece. Looks a million times better in real life but don't they all....lol

Guess what...another tree design. I am not too enthused with this one for some reason. I may improve upon it in the future.

This is a very decorative and stylised leaf design I drew sometime ago. It made a nice image for a greeting card.

Young Mother And Children from Inuit Women Artists. This is my absolute favourite from the book. I love the bold, graphic quality of the illustration and the cute little children, especially the tiny one on her shoulder.

Affectionate Mother from Inuit Women Artists

Bird Landscape from Inuit Women Artists

Red-necked Loon from Inuit Women Artists

Woman Proudly Sewing from Inuit Women Artists. This is one of my favourite illustrations from the book. I love that little baby cuddled into his mum's neck.

I have an extensive (some say too extensive) library of inspirational, art and craft books. One I have had for many years is "Inuit Women Artists" and is a very large book filled with wonderful illustrations, many stone carved, of inuit or eskimo life in the Cape Dorset area of Baffin Island. There are about 9 women featured and it details their beautiful artwork, inspired by their culture and their environment.

It is a whole world away from what we understand and their lives can be very difficult due to the extremely harsh elements they survive in. Until I bought this book many years ago I had never even thought of the inuit having any artistic or craft traditions, but they do and they are wonderful Their work is quite naive and primitive in some ways but quite complex in others and has a lovely graphic quality. I hope you find these illustrations as inspiring as I do.

I was so pleased with my three pen and ink and watercolour trees from my last post that I decided to work the image up into a finished drawing. The trees came to represent spring, summer and autumn because of their tones of green and I added a contemporary figure to fill the picture our a bit more. I am quite pleased with the result. I am becoming a real fan of ink cross-hatching these days. Prior to this I always added tone to a drawing using pointillism (tiny dots of ink) but that technique is so laborious that it takes about an hour to produce a small square (1") of drawing. Cross-hatching is wonderfully quick and you can see the drawing taking shape much more rapidly. I still prefer pointillism for realistic looking animals or birds and portraits though.