Pretty Flowers and Ritchie Collins

This is an ink and digital design which I have called "Fruitful". I have just noticed that my artwork is delicate and flowery this week. Quite spring like in fact.

Anyone who follows my blog will remember this lovely deer from around Christmas time when I used it for a Christmas card. It is a copyright free art deco design from one of my books. The stylised tree is my own design though.

I love fritillaries. This is a totally stylised one of course but I think it looks nice.

This is a beautiful bag which I saw on Etsy a while ago. It is hand knitted and felted and is in such beautiful shades of lilac and green. It is sold now alas....! It is by sassafrasstudio and she has lots more covetable bags in her shop.

If you are fond of a sweet, sentimental but rousing melody you will love the song sung by Hayley Westenra and Jonathan Ansell at the 2008 Festival of Remembrance on youtube. I have played it so often that I have almost worn it out on youtube...ha ha. You can find it here.

If you like hares and textiles you will love these gorgeous silk paintings by Rachel Sumner. I have followed the work of Rachel and her sister Mary for many years. Their lovely images can be found on ties, posters, greetings cards and wrap. These hares have a wonderfully illustrative and detailed look to them. I have wrapped up many a birthday present in Sumner gift wrap over the years. Rachel also produces embroideries and drfitwood boats. Visit her website here for some more images of her work.

I love these quirky ceramic characters from Sarah McDade from her stoneware range. She has lots more on her website here.

The detail and colour of this beautiful collograph is wonderful. It is by Australian printmaker Melissa Smith and is called Channel. It has an lovely organic quality to it.

Found some more Mocchi Mocchi cards I haven't seen before. I really like their style especially the trees and birds card just below. Their website is here but they seem to have a lot more cards than are shown on the site.

Lots and lots of lovely bluebells around at the moment. The woods are full of them and the subtle fragrance is heavenly. These are local views.

This is a photoshopped version of a bluebell wood in the picture below, hence the intensity of the colours.

A local lane at springtime.

My featured artist this week is a very popular Scottish painter called Ritchie Collins. Ritchie is inspired by the beautiful Scottish countryside, Celtic art, myths and folklore. All these influences can be seen in his beautifully textural and vibrant work. I think my favourite has to be "Where Angels Meet". I love images of angels. His art is a response to places he has visited and dreams he has had. I envy him his dreams...lol. He has a comprehensive website here. Ritchie's work can also be found at Ealain Gallery here and also Just Art Gallery here.

Where Angels Meet

Temple Night

Lobster Pot

Moon Blues

Moon Temple

Temple Cat

Boat Hoose

The Dreamer

Fisherman's House

Tea N Oranges

Love Hill
I visited a local town today and was very pleased to find that a book fair was taking place there. It was actually in the Elizabethan Court House which is an ancient building next to the church which I have long wanted to have a look inside. A heaven sent opportunity. They had some very interesting old and new books and the majority at quite reasonable prices. I treated my self to a book on poultry with lots of lovely paintings, drawings and diagrams of hens and cockerels. Very inspiring for someone who loves drawing same. The other book I bought was called Traditional Arts and Crafts of Yugoslavia which will also be a mine of inspiration for my artwork. The trouble is that every time I buy new (or old) books I have to get rid of some books already in my possession to make room. Oh to have a huge library, or alternatively, a huge house with a library. Either will do nicely.

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.