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This blog has been transferred to my new WEBSITE so please follow along there instead. 

Oil Paintings

For Open Studios this year I wanted to add some more colourful work into my collection.  I haven't painted with oils for a while and thought it would give my fingers a rest from the intensive pressure that's involved with making and printing drypoints.

We had a two week trip around Scotland at the end of May, so it was an ideal opportunity to sketch and gather inspiration for this new work.  I haven't been to the Highlands since I was about 14 and I hoped it was going to be as good I remembered...in fact it was even better.  I'd forgotten just how magnificent the mountains, lochs, valleys and views really are.  It was stunning, and also rather a daunting prospect; how to capture what we were seeing?  I decided not to do straight forward representations of the landscape, but rather to work from memory and my sketches when I got back to the studio.

I'm really pleased with the, especially how they contrast with the ones of the Fens and also other 'memories' of places, from Yorkshire to Cornwall.

Some of the paintings can currently be seen in 'Shades of Autumn' exhibition at VK Gallery in St Ives, Cambs. Open until 29th October 2022.

Cambridge Open Studios

Technically my first weekend was last weekend, but unfortunately Covid finally caught up with me and I had to semi-close. Thankfully I had a mild case and am now fully better so I'd love to see you this weekend.  I've been working on a new collection of oil paintings inspired by the contrasting landscapes of the Fens and the Highlands, so I will be really interested to hear what visitors think.  You can see a few of them in the background of the photo below.

 Please do come along the following two weekends: 

9th & 10th July

16th & 17th July

New opening times: 10am - 5pm

Smallstone, Hall End, Milton, Cambridge, CB24 6AQ

Follow the yellow flags through the village.  There are four other studios open in Milton this year, so why not follow the art trail.

I also have a few new drypoint prints, cards and wrapping paper.  Plus sketchbooks and some experimental gelli-plate prints. To find out more follow this link to the Cambridge Open Studios website and app.

Newly published designs

I'm very fortunate to still have designs licensed and published by Flamingo Paperie on a regular basis.  Here are a few that have been released in the last few months.  I particularly like the new 'Lemons' wrapping paper.

This card is called 'Four Little Boats' and is from a collograph I made several years ago.  I love how they have embossed the boats and the little fish.

These are two of my favourite new cards - Kingfisher in the Reeds (also embossed) and Long Tailed Tits.  The Long Tailed Tits design is from a new drypoint print which will be available at my Open Studios in July.

And finally, co-ordinating with the wrapping paper, is this citrusy notecard set; 'Oranges and Lemons'. They are all available from my website.

Bus Stop Competition Winner!

As usual, my blog posting has become very sporadic of late as I've been so busy.  So here's a quick update.  Back in February I was one of three winners of a competition, run by Milton Parish Council to design the artwork for three bus shelters that were being refurbished.  Everyone in the village was eligible to vote and my design called 'Wildlife in Milton Country Park' received the most votes.

Money to fund the project and pay our prize money came from a local housing developer. They were installed in April and we were featured in the Cambridge Independent Newspaper.  It was really exciting to see my artwork on such a large scale and I'm pleased to say it's received very positive feedback on the local social media platforms.

The other two winners were Chris Thomas and David May.

Black Squirrel

I've got very behind with blog posts recently as I've been so busy.  I've been working on some new designs and also experimenting with oil painting, which I'm really enjoying.  I'll begin by showing you this new card, which arrived today.  It features one of the melanistic black squirrel's that we have in our village of Milton, just north of Cambridge.

I've done a bit of research about them and they were first spotted in the wilds of Bedfordshire around 1912 and were believed to have been escapees from a private zoo, who had imported them as a curiosity from America.  They are in fact grey squirrels with a missing piece of DNA affecting their pigment gene.

They have gradually spread out as far as Cambridgeshire and we regularly have three visit our garden, now seeing them more frequently than the greys.  The card is a reproductions of my original drypoint print.  The texture of the fur was created using the à la poupée method, where one inks up the plate directly with the colour, almost like a mono-print.  The berries are chine collé; torn pieces of hand-coloured Japanese paper that adheres to the surface of the paper at the same time as printing.  The colour in the branches is straight forward watercolour!

Our village Post Office has been stocking my cards for almost a year now, so you can buy them there or directly from my shop.  Thanks to local photographer, David May, for the photo reference of the squirrel taken in Milton Country Park, which also featured on the cover of the Village View this month.

Ickworth House

At the end of September, I was really pleased to be contacted by the buyer at Ickworth House (NT), near Bury St Edmunds, about them stocking my designs.  We also discussed designing a bespoke card and coaster for them, as I have done for Anglesey Abbey, Wicken Fen and Houghton Mill.  So, in record time I delivered the finished product last week! See my Instagram highlights to see the full process.  They are also available from my website.

I am pleased to report that Wimpole Hall is hopefully placing an order soon and I am also working on a new design for them featuring their stunning walled garden.  So that will mean I am represented by all the National Trust shops in Cambridgeshire.

September sketches

Swallow Cottage, Longtown

This year seems to be galloping by, apologies for no blog updates in September.  We had a lovely break celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary.  The first week was in Herefordshire. I even did some sketching as it was too hot to go out walking on some days.  The hill in the background is Offa's Dyke, which is the border with England and Wales. It was lovely to explore a part of the UK we hadn't visited before, with the added bonus of an Indian summer. A highlight was canoeing along the River Wye.  Our dog wasn't very impressed with going in a boat.

Shell Bay, Studland 

The second week, we stayed in Osmington Mills, Dorset, famous for the Smuggler's Inn, where we had two wonderful meals.  It was another lovely week with lots of walking. The Durdle Door coastal path walk was about 12 miles! We also visited Abbotsbury, Portland Bill, Weymouth and the stunning Studland Bay, overlooking Sandbanks in Poole.  

Bike Commission

I was really pleased to be asked to make these drypoint print 'portraits' of three bikes. The print was a surprise 50th birthday present for the husband of a customer.  They are his three favourite bikes; an orange Brompton, a fixed gear racer and LeMond in lemon and black.

I'm pleased to report that he loved them.

It's a wrap!

My three weekends of Cambridge Open Studios are now over.  Thanks to everyone that visited, even in the rain and boiling hot weather. The new 'Sunlit Stipa' drypoint print went off to two new homes - the gold leaf was certainly eye-catching.

The framed Poppy Seed Heads (top left) and an unframed Silver Birch Trees (bottom left), also sold.

I also dug out a few oldies, such as this framed drypoint of 'Mangroves, Cape Tribulation', which was first printed in 2009.  It found a new home with a local photographer.  Several other prints and original paintings in the bargain browser also found people to love them.

A big hit were my new Oranges and Lemons tea towels.  Oranges in navy and Lemons in teal were the best sellers.  I will need to order more for my Christmas shows.

Footfall was definitely down this year, perhaps a number of reasons; no printed guide book combined with a hesitancy coming out when Covid levels are still quite high? My visitors were mostly from my mailing list or local to Milton, although there were quite a few that were new customers, which is always gratifying.

Cambridge Open Studios

It's that time of year again, my 26th consecutive year of Cambridge Open Studios. Its starts tomorrow and for a change I think I'm pretty much ready to go!  Just the table displays in the outside gazebo to set up in the morning and I'm all set.  It will be interesting to see how many visitors we have this year as there is no printed guide.  Instead we have an easy to use free app and the Milton studios have produced our own flyer.

I hope you will be able to come.  All Covid precautions are being taken, hand gel, QR codes, social distancing, one bubble at a time in the studio, mask wearing inside and plenty of outside undercover space too. 

  

Here is a handy map showing where the other studios are in the village and which weekends we are open:

Haddenham Art Market

Last Saturday I had the pleasure taking part in my first public event for 18 months.  It was held at Haddenham Arts Centre, which has a lovely café, artists studios and a marquee with 15+ local makers showing their work.  It felt strange at first to be setting up my display; had I remembered to pack everything? Was anyone going to come? Did people still want to buy my work?

Meadow Hare and Wicken Fen Wind Pump

Anyway, it all turned out well.  I sold these two originals, as well as cards, coasters and tea towels. I spoke with many new customers, some returning ones and even an old school friend I haven't seen for 40 years - he was still recognisable even behind the face masks we had to wear inside.

Now it's time to start preparing for Cambridge Open Studios, which starts on 3rd July 2021.

New Products

I'm really pleased to show you some of my new cards recently published by Flamingo Paperie.  The Spring Willow and Oystercatcher cards were originally in my self published range, but I have withdrawn them while they are in license.  These are slightly smaller, being 5" square.  The Spring Willow design also has a lovely light touch of eco glitter highlighting the catkins.

The Wellies design is a blast from the past.  I had a similar design in the Phoenix Trading range many years ago and thought I'd resurrect it with some new brighter patterns on the wellies.  The blue striped one is based on my actual wellies.  They are all printed on matt watercolour style FSC certified paper and the wellies are all embossed.

I'm really pleased with how the Flower Pattern wrapping paper has turned out.  It was designed digitally, so until it's in print, it's hard to imagine how it will look.  It comes with a handy cutting grid on the reverse and has matching tags.

Not to neglect my own range of cards, I've also added two more to complement my occasion cards.  They include a soft pink Happy Birthday version of the Cow Parsley design and a useful 'Just to Say...' card.  I love agapanthus, especially the more unusual white variety and hope they will prove popular. 

New Stockists

It's always exciting to be be able to supply my work to new stockists.  Yesterday I delivered some tea towels and cards to Meadows, a lovely independent deli in the Newnham area of Cambridge.  They specialise in wonderful cheeses and also have a great selection of fresh fruit and vegetables as well as daily bread deliveries from the Allotment Bakery.  They also have a small gift area, to which I'm delighted to be able to add my wares.

The second new stockist is the shop at Denny Abbey's Farmland Museum, near Waterbeach. They have a selection of my cards, tea towels and coasters.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to produce a bespoke design for them, once they are back on their feet again after being closed for so long due to the pandemic. 

It you are interested in stocking any of my products or are interested in having an exhibition of my original prints, do get in touch.

Tulips

I've added three new designs to my self published range of cards.  Firstly this one, featuring some rather jolly watercolour tulips.  They are blank inside for your own message and are available here.

Press release

I was really pleased to be contacted this month by Adrian Peel from Cambridge Independent Newspapers.  We talked about how I started my business and where I find my inspiration.  The full article can be read here.

The main photo of me was taken by Keith Heppell.

A selection of my greetings cards.

Spread some Love

It's coming up to Valentine's Day.  My cards are £2 each available from my online shop.  If you are local and can collect from my studio in Milton near Cambridge, use the code MILTON to deduct the postage charged.  They are blank inside for your own message, so could also be used for an Anniversary, Wedding or just to tell someone you are thinking about them.

Milton Advent Windows

Somewhat rashly I volunteered to take part in the Milton Village Advent Windows community project, founded this year by Kathleen English, a member of All Saints Church.  She was looking for people in the village to decorate their front windows on a given day during advent.  The idea being that the whereabouts of each window would be publicised and villagers could have an evening stroll, with the added bonus of spotting a beautifully lit window.

I decided to take on "A Partridge in a Pear Tree" and spent far too long (possibly 12 hours) cutting up cardboard and tissue paper to create our window, which 'opened' on 1st December.  I will keep it lit up every day from 4pm until 24th December, when I'm sure the dog will be delighted to see passers-by from the window once again!

This year I haven't had my usual Christmas shows so had a bit more time to spend making a mess in our dining room. It was quite a challenge as I don't usually work on such a large scale.  I've had people ask if I'll be doing "Two Turtle Doves" next year, but I'll have to see if we are 'back to normal' with events.  Thanks to everyone who has visited and sent me kind messages.  I was also interviewed live on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire this morning, which was quite a surprise, with 15 minutes notice.  We are in Hall End, Milton, if you'd like to pop by.

Top and bottom windows viewed from the road

New products

I never get tired of seeing my new designs in print.  This month I have three new things to show you. Firstly this rather posh looking embossed card of my original Honesty print.  It's titled Lunaria (the Latin name for the purple flowering, silver-skinned oval-seed producing plant). It's just £2 available here.

Next I have this really sophisticated card with shining gold foil.  It's called Love Heart with Golden Birds, also £2 from my shop.  This one is a larger format, being 6" square.

Lastly, a new wrapping paper featuring on trend Monstera Leaves.  Did you have a plant like this in the 70's, do you have one now?  Also known as cheese plants, I'm guessing because they have holes like some cheeses?  A sheet of folded wrap is £1.50 and the matching tags are just £2 for five.  See the wrapping paper section of my website, where there are now seven different designs to browse.

Bird Houses Advent Card

I've had the idea for this design in my head for ages, so it's great to finally see it in print.  A few years ago I designed a Beach Hut Advent Calendar and I wanted to design something which had a similar feel.  The artwork for the Bird Houses was done full sized but the publishers, Flamingo Paperie, printed it as an advent card.  Although disappointed at first, it actually means a lot more people will be able to see it, as posting is easier and they are only £3, available from my website.  I thought I'd ordered plenty, but they sold out in a day, so I've now stocked up with lots more and hope to have enough to go round.  Look out for two cheeky visitors who have cosied up in one of the bird boxes.