Julia Manning Prints and Japanese Woodcut cards

Have you ever wondered what is inside a pear? Well now you know. It is the pear people of course but they cannot be seen by everyone.

I absolutely love the combination of black, white and red. It is perfect for drawings. I have been doing a series of black and red birds this week and these are two of them. Very fine feathers indeed.

This scene was inspired by a picture of a lovely applique. Not too keen on the colours I have used though. I think something brighter might have looked better.

This is my 2007 Christmas card. The snowy scene was from one of my own photographs of a rare snowy weather. The snow lasted a whole day.

These are cards by Mocchi Mocchi and are Japanese woodcuts. You can find their website here. I love the minimal palette they have used and the designs are really lovely.

The images below are the work of Somerset artist and printmaker Julia Manning who can be found here.

Goodness, my 49th blog post already and it only seems like the other day that I started blogging. I must admit I am enjoying it much more than I thought I would. Originally, I started blogging several times a week but I have gradually settled into just blogging weekly. That is quite enough really as time is always short. I really admire those people who have the commitment and "enough to say" to be able to blog daily. I certainly wouldn't be able to produce daily artwork although some do. I take my proverbial hat off to them.

Next week I will be having my first blog giveaway. I think I know what it will be but minds do get changed, particularly mine, so I am not saying anything else at the moment. I have been lucky enough to win 2 blog giveaways and I am thrilled with both of them, so I think it is time I returned the favour, and what better time to do it than my 50th post. All will be revealed as they say in the best circles.

I am still finding lovely cards to post and have found another three this week. One of them is a Christmas card and the other two general purpose. They are illustrations of a Japanese company called Mocchimocchi and I think they are quite beautiful. I believe they are from woodcuts. They have a website which is in Japanese but it is nice just to look at the artwork.

My featured artist is from Somerset and is a printmaker and painter called Julia Manning. She has an extensive website here. She has travelled widely and has produced work connected with her travels. Her work is very much concerned with nature and animals and birds and is produced as linocuts, etchings and woodcuts. She also sells a range of cards on her site. I saw some of her work at the Society of Wildlife Artists exhibition at the Mall Galleries a few weeks ago and was very impressed with her raven images. Apparently she has access to draw the ravens at the Tower of London - my favourite place for raven photographs. The legend is that if the ravens ever leave the Tower, England will fall, so there are always a certain number of ravens living there and a couple of spares just in case. They all have names and even have a Tower warden just to look after them. Things have certainly improved for them since the days they scavanged the bodies of the poor unfortunates who lost their heads on Tower Green.