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.