Birch Tree Bag for BlueQ

A week or so ago I received some samples of the bag I illustrated last summer for BlueQ. We were staying at our friends' house when I was working on the project. They have a long thin garden with apple and fig trees and a vegetable patch at the end. For three mornings in a row a squirrel came to the garden - I think he though I might need a model - because on the third day he tap-tapped with his little paw on the patio window! When I finished the project I didn't see him again.

The other lovely thing about doing this project was it was a collaboration with Hallie a freelance designer based in New York. It was my first time of communicating on a project using skype - talking can sometimes be so much easier than writing and it's so nice to feel you know someone a bit by the end of the project. Hallie doesn't have a "complete website" as yet but I love her front page just as it is.

Perfume Bottles

I've been collecting perfume bottles since I was six and last autumn I finally got my "London Collection" out of old shoe boxes and into a cabinet. I also have many in Scotland and when home last year I drew some and recently made these repeat patterns with them.

Maybe sometimes simple is best?

I did this sketch in the autumn in a beautiful B&B in Cambridgeshire when I attended an archive day at the Curwen Press. It was dusk, we'd just arrived and we were having a cup of tea before exploring the village of Linton.

Now I've spent an evening doing the colour version below ...I realise I actually have a fondness for it just as a blackline drawing straight from my sketchbook!

Illustrations on Prejudice

These were part of a set of illustrations on the subject of Prejudice for Nursing Standard magazine.

Snow Dog

We built this snow dog at my parents at New Year. My Mum said now he is just a lump of snow a foot or so high on the newly revealed grass.

Photographs from our Snowy Trip

Northumberland and Scotland in the snow over Christmas and New Year. We walked every where and left the car in Northumberland and took the train to Scotland as snow was so deep and the roads so dangerous. I took so many photographs....I hope at some point they'll feed into my work. I was obsessed by the patterns that bits of grass and bare twigs made in the snow...somehow it reminded me of calligraphic marks.

Yoga Journal - Prana

Above is the final artwork for a piece on prana in the January/February issue of the US Yoga Journal. And below some roughs. I'm really missing not being able to keep an eye on US magazines since all the UK branches of Borders closed down last month. Does anyone know of a good stockist of American magazines in London?