Quirky Birds And Este MacLeod

This is "An Intriguing Hat" and is quite quirky really. I love drawing people with various things on their heads.

I found a picture of a lady with this posture in a book and decided it would be perfect for this picture. This is "The Blue Bird".

This design is "In The Flower Garden" and is loosely inspired by another Caroline Gardner greetings card.

I call this drawing "triangular tree" because the leaves are tiny triangles - makes sense. The blue fruit is a bit unusual of course....!

The early morning sun makes a really lovely picture of these winter trees. I haven't been out and about photographing very much lately so this is last years' shot.

I couldn't resist photographing this beech tree with the sun turning its leaves to gold. I wish autumn would stay with us for longer. We are having incredibly squally gales tonight so I don't suppose there will be many leaves left on the trees tomorrow.

This is the deer wrapping paper I found yesterday. I looks much better in real life but I think you get the general idea. Very sweet and pink.

This one is a Stephanie Dyment card. I love the bright, fresh greens. On the whole I prefer contemporary designs to traditional, although some traditional cards are really lovely, like the sheep card I featured in an earlier blog.

This is a Claire Hocking design. I am a sucker for deer and I love the little bird on its back. I love drawing birds. They are so cute and you can put them almost anywhere.

This is a lovely Lisa Graa Jensen Christmas card. This is from last year but it has been re-issued this year but a shorter version with the moon and sky missing. I often notice the previous year's cards in with the new designs. This seems to happen with the most popular designs. I suppose if you have a moneyspinner of a card you milk it for all it is worth.

The following paintings and ceramics are all the work of South African artist Este MacLeod. Check out her website for more lovely images of her art and craft.

November is passing so quickly that it will be Christmas before we know where we are. I haven't even thought about present buying but that is usually a last minute rush. I envy those organised individuals who can shop for presents as soon as summer is over. I know that I couldn't do it. Even more remarkable are those people who shop throughout the year and lay gifts away even though it may be January. I think I need the spice of the adrenaline rush in leaving it to the last minute. I always do my best work when I am under pressure...ha ha.

I am still on the Christmas card hunt though and have found some more nice designs for you to browse. I also bought my first roll of wrapping paper simply because I loved the little pink deer on it. There are so many lovely designs around at Christmas time.

The leaves are nearly all golden and yellow and red now but the weather is so wet and squally that I doubt if we shall have any left on the trees by tomorrow. I popped up to one of my favourite places for autumnal leaves yesterday, but unfortunately I forgot to replace the camera batteries so I missed the chance of sunshine on beech trees. I will probably never get the opportunity again this year so I have rooted out a couple of oldish photos for you to see. Spring and autumn are my favourite seasons.

My featured artist this week is South African born painter and ceramicist called Este MacLeod (pronounced macloud). She has quite an extensive website here. Her paintings have a stylised, naive quality and she is inspired by everyday things, dreams and the natural world. Her ceramics are beautifully quirky and very stylised and, like me, she loves putting birds on peoples' heads...ha ha. I love her work and I think she is a very talented artist and craftswoman. See what you think.

Flora/Chloris and Sarah Young

This is one of my new Christmas card designs. I haven't used this old gold colour for a background before but I really like it. Not traditionally Christmas looking but I think it works with the white deer.

This is Chloris - the first of my flower goddess drawings. I loved doing that hair. She looks better in the enlarged version.

This is a page from my new sketchbook. Sorry about the quality of the photo but it has been VERY dark here today.

This is Flora - the second flower goddess. She is very stylised but I am pleased with how she turned out.

This is a gorgeous Christmas card by Judi Trevorrow. It is designed for Milkwood Publishing and you can find their website here. They have some beautiful designs and great artists. I bought a large selection of their cards when I was on holiday in Cornwall a couple of years ago.

Lovely soft pastels in this angelic card by Sarah Summers

This is a great sheepy card by Anuk Naumann. Watercolour at its best.

Petra Borner Christmas Card. So beautiful and graphic. I love all her work.

The following images are all the work of the highly talented artist and printmaker Sarah Young.

When I get a drawing theme in my head it is very hard to shift and I tend to overdo it sometimes. I was leafing through a library book the other day and I spotted a painting of Flora, the mythological Roman goddess of flowers and spring. Her Greek counterpart was Chloris (love that name). Wasn't there a perfume called Chloris once? If there wasn't, there should have been. It is a perfect name for a flowery perfume. Anyway, I digress. I decided that a female portrait with flowers in the hair was a perfect theme for the run up to Christmas...... don't ask. I ended up with quite a batch of Flora/Chloris artwork so I chose the two I liked best to post in the blog this week. I hope you like them.

Harking back to last week's blog and my mention of my sketchbooks. Well I have been a very good artist and used my lovely new sketchbook properly without first drawing on scrap paper. I have gone a bit more illustrative and quirky for my sketches but found them very enjoyable. Quirky is good. When I produce a sketch I dislike, I then tend to do another on a little piece of scrap paper to paste in the sketchbook and cover up the unwanted one. Back to sketches on scraps of paper...I know, I know...!

My featured artist this week is the wonderful English artist and printmaker Sarah Young. She lives on the South Coast of England and is very well known in the art world for her beautiful work in various media. Her work is multifaceted but is very strong on myth and narrative. Not only does she paint, but she also produces monoprints, collographs, linocuts and silk screens and has had work published. She has also added some wonderful dolls to her repertoire. A multi-talented lady. She has a wonderful and extensive website here hosted by Jon Tutton who works with Sarah. Jon also co-produces a very interesting art blog called madeuk which is well worth a look. Hope you enjoy the links.

Christmas Is Fast Approaching

This is the coloured version of my pen and ink drawing posted last week. It didn't take too long to colour either. Not sure why blogger is making it blurred. You may need to click on it for a larger version to see it better.

I love the old retro cloche hats of the 30s. I wish they were still popular today. These two are definitely over-the-top but I think the idea is ok.

This is just a quick fantasy drawing I did today. I love these colours and may use them for other pictures. This piece is entitled The Headdress.

This is another Christmas card design using the same tree I posted previously under a different guise. I am not too sure whether the gold star looks right but otherwise I think it is quite a pretty image. This is an actual London tree.

This is the finished Christmas card which I am using for my brother's cards this year. Quite minimal but wintry I hope.

Lovely contemporary image of deer by Caroline Gardner cards. Lovely modern palette.

This was a previous Christmas card from Caroline Gardner cards but far too nice to send to anyone...lol.

This is an Oxfam Christmas 2008 card. Not sure who the designer is but it is beautifully detailed and full of inspiration for those of us who love trees and leaves. Oxfam seem to have gone over to much more contemporary cards this year and I think the designs are a great improvement. I overheard one of the elderly ladies who serve behind the counter saying she hated them though. Still you cannot please everyone.

The following images are paintings by the English artist Clare Shepherd. You can find here website here.

Christmas is getting ever closer and I have been on the lookout for new and interesting Christmas card designs. There was a time when I used to buy lots and lots of packets of cards, usually charity cards. But times is 'ard these days and now I only purchase the designs I cannot live without and leave the others on the shelves for wealthier members of the population. I find greetings cards on the whole to be extremely expensive, especially when you think that they cost mere pence to produce en masse. I don't mind if a decent amount of the profit goes to the charity concerned, but sometimes I wonder if that is the case. Why am I buying cards anyway, I can hear you thinking, when I have the means to produce my own. Don't ask. I think it is something to do with the grass being greener on the other side of the fence or perhaps other designers' images being better than mine.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I have long admired Caroline Gardner cards and I have posted a couple with deer images. One is this year's and one is from a previous year but was too nice to send...hah hah. I don't think you can beat a nice coloured deer at Christmas. You might want to check out her website. She is another person who seems to revel in lots of lovely colours.

How many sketch books do you possess? I have a few and some of them have pristine pages. Why? Because I find it very difficult to sketch in a sketch book. I tend to sketch and draw on lots of odd bits of paper and old envelopes etc and then I may stick those in the sketch book. Alternatively, I will do my first sketch on rough paper and then produce a slightly better sketch in the sketch book. I find it nearly impossible to do a completely new sketch in the right place first time. I think it has to do with not wanting to mess up lovely white pages and also worrying about filling up the book too quickly as I produce a huge amount of sketches at a time. My brother's partner, Lesley, has just given me a lovely sketchbook with beautiful quality paper but this time I am determined to draw in the right place. Hmmm.... we'll see.

My featured artist this week is Clare Shepherd who is an English artist living in Dorset. She also enjoys teaching art. She has a wonderful colour sense and her paintings are very contemporary with lots of light and colour. She uses shapes to advantage and these veer slightly toward the abstract. Her work covers a very wide spectrum and on her beautiful website here you can find a huge quantity of artwork. I especially enjoy her landscapes of Dorset and Exmoor.