Friday, January 30, 2009

Nesting Tern and Jackie Morris

Terns will nest anywhere given the opportunity. Pen and ink with digital colouring.
For this image I had the idea of printing matt colours on piece of paper and then drawing over the top. Quite successful although I couldn't use my finest nibs because the paper is coated and kept blocking them. A Princess in a VERY stylised garden.
I discovered a wonderful book on leaves in a charity shop a while back and was inspired to create some leaf forms - although the decoration on them is mine and not from the book. The book contains some fantastic photos of leaves from all over the world.
Pen and Ink Sketch
Hurray, the snowdrops are out.
This photo is part of a 6th photo of the 6th folder meme. I was tagged by Robyn of the wonderful Art Propelled blog. It is difficult for me because I haven't been blogging that long and because I have very long pages, I don't have a 6th folder! This is the best I can do and I particularly like this one.

This is one of the most beautiful cemetery monumental angel statues I have ever seen. It is from Victorian East Finchley Cemetery which is in North London. The Victorians ran out of space to bury the dead in the mid 1800s so they started creating huge cemeteries in "then" rural areas outside London. There are many of them containing beautiful sculptures of every conceivable angel you can imagine. Some of these artworks are so wonderfully sculpted that they deserve to be housed safely in a museum. Sadly many of them are eroded by time and weather and often lose bits of their faces, or even worse, are daubed with graffitti or damaged by vandalism. I love this one particularly for the very melancholic and serene appearance of the face. A perfect angel for a cemetery.
I found these lovely posters on doing a search of the London Transport Museum shop site for "bluebells". Not very seasonal I know. London Transport created lots of beautiful posters and a lot of them are now collected as vintage items.

Margaret Calkin James
Anna Katrina Zinkeisen
Henry Perry
All the images below are the work of UK illustrator Jackie Morris. Details about Jackie's work and her blog links can be found at the bottom of the post. Particularly, if you love cats, don't miss her cat blog. It is priceless.

The Guardians
Illustration from Stories From The Stars
Pink Moon
Noah And Dove
Illustration from Stories From The Stars
Raven's Gift
Queen Of The White Bears
Not Sleeping
Sleeping With The White Bears
Race To The Swift
She Fed Him Rosehips
Hare Circle
Winter Caravan
Another week of winter has gone by and we are another week closer to Spring. I had a look at nearby favourite nesting sites for rooks, but they don't seem to have started building yet. It can only be another week or two before they do start. I love the sounds rooks make when they are sorting out their nests and building new ones. I like to watch them flying by with hugely long twigs in their beaks. I am always fascinated by how birds manage to fashion beautiful round nests out of seemingly long, straight twigs. A bit of ornithological magic going on there I think.

I was tagged by Gillian the other day at iheartcrafts.blogspot to post 6 things about myself that most people don't know. It wasn't too difficult as most of the people reading this blog don't know me anyway...lol. Anyway, here goes:

6 Things About Me Most People Don't Know

1) I have delivered 43 babies who will all be in their early twenties now.

2) I learned to fence with a foil at school and won a bronze medal.

3) I loathe raw celery, dates, olives, and anything tasting of aniseed.

4) My favourite holiday would be touring the ancient capital cities of Europe - my least favourite would be sunbathing on a crowded beach.

5) I enjoy sailing on rough seas (given the chance) and riding on "scary fast" fairground rides.

6) I (and my brother) have traced our ancestry back to the mid-1600s in Yorkshire.


My featured artist this week is the extremely talented UK illustrator Jackie Morris. Jackie is well known for her beautiful childrens' book illustrations, but she has illustrated lots of other things as well, and also authored some of the books. She paints in a delightfully vibrant and vivid style of watercolour, and her polar bears particularly are a delight. I love the detail and colour palette she uses. She has an extensive website here which shouldn't be missed.

Jackie is also an assidous blogger (where does she find the time for all this?). Her blog "Starlight, Starbright tracks the journey of the book she is illustrating. Another blog called We Three, Ginger Cat Tales tells lovely stories about her animals with hilarious photos and finally, here you will find Paperboats. Plenty to see and enjoy this week.

18 comments:

Caroline said...

Thank you Cathy, for this wonderful post with so many delights to look at and read - I've been distracted for about an hour already!
Your leaves are super - what a great find that book was! Loved the snowdrops and bluebell posters and have just had a browse through the ginger cats blog - hilarious!

~ Phyllis ~ said...

Hi Cathy,
Again you have given us another lovely blog post. I really enjoyed looking at your leaf images. Jackie's polar bear images are a delight but my favorite is your photograph of the Snowdrops. You are an excellent photographer. I found your six things list very interesting. Delivering 43 babies is quite an accomplishment. I agree with you on the favorite holiday. I did a tour of European cities way back in 1972. Would love to do it again.
Which is your favorite city? I think Paris is mine. Actually I loved them all.

Gillian said...

Thanks for your nice words on my angel post. I enjoyed your six random facts and love those bluebell transport posters.

Cathy said...

Hi Caroline. Glad you enjoyed it all. Nice to have a distraction in this weather. I am planning on a nice, cosy day in front of the computer reading blogs. We have quite thick snow today.

Cathy said...

Thanks Phyllis. I love that snowdrop picture too. Regarding cities, I haven't been to the ones I really would love to visit like Prague and Barcelona, but I agree with you that Paris is a peach.

Cathy said...

Thanks Gillian. I would love to get some of those bluebell posters. I love bluebells.

Anonymous said...

Thank your Lovely compliment :)

Marilyn said...

Hi, Cathy...I'm so happy that you stopped by my blog because I've now found your blog! Your pen and ink drawings are wonderful and I so enjoyed seeing your art on your website. I love that you've shared other artists' works too--the bluebell posters are a real treasure! I'm planning to return often to see what you're doing--it's been a pleasure! Thanks very much:)

Cathy said...

Thank you very much for your visit Mo'a. I enjoyed a peak at your blog.

Cathy said...

Thank you very much for those kind words Marilyn. I have enjoyed visiting some lovely blogs, yours included, which I wouldn't have found if not for the OWOH Giveaway. If there is another one next year I will make sure I take part in plenty of time. In the meantime, I am off visiting again...lol.

BeadBag said...

Cathy what gorgeous posts! I love your leaves.

Holly Zemak said...

Hi Cathy, What a wonderful post, I enjoyed the illustrations by Jackie Morris (esp. The Guardians) and took a peak at her cat blog. Like your stylised leaves, very graphic. Now I need to ask you, did you get snow?

Old World Primitives said...

Hi Cathy,
Your list of 6 things was a really interesting read! I really enjoyed both your latest illustrations and those by Jackie Morris that you shared with us too. Love the woman in the flower print dress especially.

:)
Stephanie

Cathy said...

Thanks Shirley. I really enjoying drawing leaves and trees....oh and birds of course.

Cathy said...

Yes Holly, lots of snow on Monday night. Snowmen everywhere. Because we get so little snow in the UK, the kids have the day off school and go wild playing with snowballs and sledges etc...some adults too. Now it is mostly mushy and almost gone but we may be getting some more soon.

Cathy said...

Thanks Stephanie. That was actually a bronze nude statue of a woman walking which I found in an old art book. I simply drew her with a nice dress on...lol.

ArtPropelled said...

It was the East Finchley Cemetry angels that led me to your blog. Everything for a reason!

I discovered Jackie Morris's blog a while back and what a wonderful place to visit with all her amazing photos and artwork. I particularly like the ones with the gold leaf background. The polar bear illustrations you've included here are so very beautiful.

Your pen and inks always delight me. They have a look about them that are so typical of your work. A definite style that appeals to me.

Cathy said...

Thanks Robyn. I agree that there is a reason why things happen. Sometimes those reasons don't become apparent for ages though.

I agree about Jackie Morris. Her polar bears are lovely.