beside the sea

Well tomorrow I am off on my jollies again, this time to Devon. I have a collection of paintings for Baxters gallery in Dartmouth. I have never been to Dartmouth before and only have fuzzy memories of Devon from my childhood so I am really looking forward to the trip. This is one of my paintings coming with me.

Baxters is the new name for Hartworks, the gallery originally set up by Simon and Theresa Hart. It has a very coastal theme.
The new owner Sarah Duggan took over in July 2006 after a career in retail and running a design-led gift business. After too many years of saying “one day, I’ll own a gallery”, Sarah decided that Dartmouth and Baxters would be where she would enjoy life and her passion for the arts.

I thought as I seem to be having a gallery showcasing theme going on this week I would do the same today.

Here are some lovely artists who currently exhibit there.

Annie Rouse

Emma Dunbar

Carole Green

I will be back on Monday with tales of sea and sand but for now Happy happy Thanksgiving to you all. xxx

Deck the walls

The other show I delivered eight paintings for last week was Deck the Walls at Will's art warehouse. Deck the walls is their Christmas exhibition featuring nine painters and printmakers. The work is full of enchantment, charm and style. Everything in the show is under £500 so is a good opportunity to find something original from this eclectic collection.

Again here is some work by some of the other artists I am exhibiting with. These pieces aren't all in the show, some are but they are my favourites by them.

First up is Anna Hymas

Anna often paints one painting on top of another. What comes out in the end is a product of what was discarded before. The remains of the discarded painting give an extra dimension to her work, which is at the same time abstract and figurative.

Next, I like the quirkiness of Jennifer Taylors work.

“I am particularly interested in the texture and surface properties of fabric combined with paint. Uniting the themes of decorated textural backgrounds, the sharp outlines of pointed shoes and additional details of buttons and gold leaf seems to utilise the strands of my previous skills of making.”

And lastly Helen Fay. It is quite funny that myself and Helen are both showing at both these shows, the one at Sarah Wiseman and here at Wills.

"The composition, scale, skill and beauty of her work pushes them beyond any classification of etchings or natural history subjects. Monochromatic, moody, sometimes densely worked, they capture the magnificence of the natural world in a timeless yet contemporary way." I just love penguins!

The show runs until January 7th so if in the Putney area of London be sure to check it out!

Back to the easel I go for I am off to Devon on Friday with a selection of work for a new gallery I shall tell you all about tomorrow, goodnight all x

Christmas shows

I delivered six large paintings to Sarah Wiseman gallery in Oxford last Thursday. The show is called 'Art of giving' . I had a chance to have a little look at a few other artists work that would be in the show. The show started on Saturday and is running until the end of December. Here are just a few.

My favourite were these ceramics by Zeita Scott. Her skilfully and unusually tactile platters and cups invite you to celebrate food and the everyday use of handmade objects. Inspired by the Japanese modular tableware, Zeita is encouraging people to use her pieces 'shuffled' in with others. They all work so well together. Mixing black clay with lush colours Zeita is creating something truly unique!

This is the work of Laura. She is a graduate from the Royal College of Art and winner of "Best Newcomer" award in Bombay Sapphire Competiton, which is the world's biggest international glass award. Her beautiful, organic glass pieces fuse the highest levels of creative imagination and need to be seen!

I have been a bit of a fan of the work of Trevor Price for some time. This is an etching of his that just makes me smirk! I have read that his subject matter is in some way a reflection of his life. Some of the pieces are about the intimacy between a couple, and others show the normal obsessions of any man.

I love the work of this Jewellery designer Lucy Sylvester. On her website are some really amazing pieces. This is what she writes

"I am motivated by using insects; if a ladybird landed on a woman’s knee she would probably accept it. However if a cockroach walked up her leg it would not be welcome. I find the thought of creating jewellery that will be worn close to the skin, from the insects she would loathe to be near, fascinating. The twisted pleasure of a woman adorned by the insects she would swot in everyday life"

If any of you are around Oxford this Christmas be sure to drop by this really is an interesting collection of work and of course there are some of my paintings there too!

wallpapers

I have been swooning over a few wallpapers recently. Here are a few.This is a new one for Sandberg whose fabrics I have loved for so long. They are a Swedish company (but of course they are). This one is also by them which is a bit safer and although the colour is very subtle it still has a real charm, of course I love the little houses and the fabric is great too. This one is for Graham and Brown. I have worked closely with them for a few years now and they have reproduced some of my designs for sale internationally as wall art rather than wallpaper but here are two of their wallpapers that I love.

'Pink donkey' is designed by Kate Larsen, this interactive paper rekindles the joy of the old parlour game, pin the tail on the donkey. You decide what the tail will be then attempt to pin it on the pink donkeys.

And finally my absolute favourite is 'frames'. I have some rolls of this myself which they gave to me one day when I was up in their warehouse proofing my own designs. I have never got round to putting it up though. I am saving it for when we do eventually buy our own house. It is far too good for rented accomodation. Designed by artists Taylor and Wood again is interactive. You can add photographs or draw straight onto it, I will have hours of fun with this though one day.

......and breathe

deep breaths and.....breathe. It's over....until tomorrow at least , but tonight I am putting my feet up!

Phew, what a few days. After 10 hours of driving to London and Oxford today the 14 paintings got there safely. Here are just a few as promised.

Please excuse the camera. Either I have the shakes really badly or I have my camera on the wrong setting. Does anyone else ever have this problem? After taking about 60 photos only about 6 are salvageable, gutted.

My sofa is calling so must go but to Julie, yes I made it to Ikea(2 nights in a row, aarrggghhh) but thats another story, not great enough to share sadly but my new TV is rather swanky on its new unit. Goodnight all! For once I hope I don't dream of beach huts!!!! xxx

kerput!

Our TV just blew up which means Sean gets his way finally and we get one of those fancy flat things, hmmpphhh!!! Does anyone else just not get boys fascination with technology. I would happily go and get an old secondhand thing. I really dislike spending money on this kind of thing. Anyway, this leads onto the fact that we will need to reorganise the lounge so Crazy I know as it is 9.20pm but we are off to IKEA to look for TV storage. Once upon a time I would be so excited at this prospect but I feel I am outgrowing IKEA now. There are so many great things about it, the meatballs,lighting, fabric, and dime bar cake, but the queues and general amount of people is really tiresome. I think I could talk for hours on this subject having worked in the homewares sector of retail for many years in the past but alas, the dark rainy night is calling.

Bye for now, hopefully we will be out of there by midnight!!!

Tomorrow I shall share some new paintings that are off for exhibitions on Thursday. x

wedding decor

For my lovely friend Amy here is the link to the website www.re-foundobjects.com I was just talking about. Beautiful shop RE that I discovered recently.

As I have mentioned I am getting married next year and am already busy planning 'the look' of it. Of course this is the most exciting bit when you are a creative type, but thinking creatively and cheaply has become the order of the day. We are getting married in a tiny church in our village and then having a marquee in the local pub garden about 50 metres down from the church. The pub garden backs on to our back garden so you can imagine how intimate and close this all is. I have never fully understood why weddings cost so much before but boy am I finding out now. We have chosen the most basic 'no frills' marquee mainly because of cost but I really don't like the whole frills and bows look anyway.

So have found some lovely paper decorations which I think in mass could create real impact. For starters these balls in large white and smaller light blue hung in groups could look really light, fresh and pretty. The whole colour scheme is white and Pale blue. Very scandinavian!

My boyfriend, whoops Fiance seems to break into a cold sweat when I mention the word bunting and has made his feelings clear that there is an absolute ban on any at all at our wedding. The B word is like a swear word and the small amount i did manage to sneak in last Summer got abolished to the bottom of the garden where it can be seen by absolutely noone. But I think I may have fooled him. These Mexican Paper picados are as I keep telling him Mexican Paper Picados and not at all like bunting. Ha! Well they are not are they?!? I love them and the top one is wedding themed.

And I thought these paper skeletons would fit in nicely too. What do you think? No....? the doves and hearts might work instead then.

So have a look at their website because there are some really lovely things for the home including those French milk bottles that also seemed to jump into my shopping basket while I wasn't looking. Cheeky little things!!??!!

Au revoir friends and happy shopping!!!!

tweet

This amazing piece of work flew from over the pond to live with me last week. I have been in awe of the work of Amy Ruppel for some time and thought it would be rude not to have a small piece for myself. Every time she has held an online sale because of the time difference I have missed out, but she kindly made this one for me personally. They are so much more amazing in the flesh. They are so delicately tactile, I am intrigued about her process. I just have to find somewhere to show it off now. And if you are quick I think she is having another sale today!

Oh, and how I would love to visit her show at Office in Portland, USA at the moment to see this huge one!

And talking of birds, I discovered the work of Cathy Miles recently when visiting a gallery. Her work just has to be seen. She makes these wire bird sculptures but my favourites are the wall mounted pieces with hilarious text and titles. They are fun but perfectly executed. Do go and look at her website.

And finally, before I go for the weekend to paint furiously, here are two that I have finished for Wills Art warehouse. They are two of eight I am delivering to them next Thursday as part of their Deck The Walls exhibition. If you are in London then pop along for the show where all the work is under £500 and you can partake in a mince pie and some mulled wine!

Happy weekend all! x

ooohh embroidery!

I studied multi media textiles nine years ago and concentrated on embroidery. I have a real passion for it and occasionally dabble but still love the art of stitch.

Karen Nicol is an embroidery and mixed media textile designer working in fashion and interiors. Specialising in Irish, Cornelly, Multihead, beading and hand embroidery, her London based design and production studio has been established for more than twenty years. She has collaborated with some of the worlds most famous fashion designers including Marc Jacobs, Matthew Williamson and this dress here was with Clements Ribeiro.

The colours here are just juicy.....

This lovely little yellow chrysanthmum delights me on this gingham...

and more subtle and sophisticated here...

and there's more....

Just a few more designers I am loving right now

Hannah Louise Lamb

Vicky Ambery Smith I love penguins

Elizabeth Abbey

Shaun Leane

I went to see the creature show at Manchester craft centre.The show looks at modern day soft toys and textile works with quirky but endearing personalities. The show includes work by eight makers whose hand-made designs are changing the face of soft toys and contemporary Crafts. Sketch books and design plans are on show alongside the creatures themselves, explaining more about how these quirky characters were created. The show features work by Donna Wilson, Sam Leonard, Lucy Griffiths, Claire Montgomerie, Judy Dwyer, Pure Chemistry and Sparrow Kids.

Sam Leonards skinni bears caught my eye at New designers this year.

Cyril the squirrel

....and the ever wonderful Donna Wilsons characters

She has a fabulous website, you should check it out.

Razzle Dazzle

So Simple .....but stunning!

I'm back! I have been too busy to think let alone write the last few days. I have 14 paintings to complete for Christmas shows by next Thursday. I think last week I may have said I liked working under pressure, I changed my mind, I don't!!! It has been late late nights and will be for the next week but I am determined to keep this blog up.

I took a much needed day off on Sunday which was a really wonderful day from start to finish. Myself and my friend Amy went over to Manchester to see the Dazzle exhibition that Abigail Percy is exhibiting in at the moment. What a treat. It was the private view this weekend with wine, music and oh some really wonderful pieces within Manchester town hall. I have been to this exhibition for the last few years but normally go sometime in December when the German Christmas market is also on in the Town Hall square with lots of stalls of arts and crafts and food and mmmmmmmmulled wine! For those of you in the UK I can thoroughly recommend it. I spent over a year working in a small, contemporary jewellers in Chester so have a very keen interest in Jewellery and love to see up and coming and new designers.

I must say Abigails work looked truly stunning. In the flesh these pieces scream elegance. The carving is just exquisite I don't know how she does it. I thought they needed a case of their own they were so special. There was one piece there I am dreaming of. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take photos to show you but it was a beautiful long string of freshwater pearls with her geranium leaves and the most beautiful lemon citrine stones. Wowee! I can't possibly do it justice by describing it myself.

I am definitely adding a piece of hers to my Christmas wish list so will be chatting with her about that. As I am getting married next year depending on the style of dress I do eventually go for then maybe those pearls just could be mine!!

To see a full list of the designers who are showing at Dazzle, visit here , but here are some of my other favourites.

Maike Barteldres gorgeously smooth pebbles

Julie allison Wonderful little buildings

Becky Crow Quirky and illustrative inspired by people in everyday situations

I think I will continue with more jewellers tomorrow as I have loads more I love and want to share. I saw some more shows in Manchester, but more on that later in the week, but now I have to go back to painting.

Lastly, Well done Abigail, Thank you for the invite, fabulous darling!!!!

My love for Tord

"Visitors to winter wonderland step through an ornamental gate thickly entwined with flowers, vines and fantastic birds, into a fairytale world redolent with the innocence and delight of childhood"

How beautiful is this?!

I long to go to Austria to see this in the flesh! It is there for three years so you never know!

I am starting this post with a declaration of love for Tord Boontje. I first saw his work about 4 years ago when I saw a chandelier he made for Swarovski. Whilst working at Habitat he designed the Garland light for them. I have never known such a popular product the whole time I worked in retail, there were waiting lists for them for months. It surprised me but they seemed to come out at just the right time when decorative pieces and pattern really started to become popular with the masses.

I have a few pieces by him myself, the Until Dawn curtain in my bathroom...

...a garland light in my bedroom and a few plates he designed for authentics ( the blue and white one next to the coffee pot). Oh this is the dresser in my kitchen by the way.

...and he has just designed a range for Target which is really affordable

There is a great little article and interview about him here, and lastly I love love love this illustration by him.

Folk art rocks! Goodnight all!