Peterborough Lions

I'm really excited to be blogging about a great artistic opportunity, and it will all be kicking off this Saturday at Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery.

About a month ago I was contacted by Stuart from Peterborough's Blok Collective, a group of local artists. He'd seen some work I'd done for a local competition and wondered if I wanted to be one of four artists who get to paint their own design on a life-sized statue of a lion. Guess how long it took for me to leap into the air, shouting YES!!!

For those of you that haven't seen, it's become a bit of a craze in the last couple of years to have statues of various animals dotted about British cities, all uniquely decorated by different artists. In London there were elephant statues all around the city, highlighting the plight of the Asian elephant. Go here for the whole story. There's also been gorillas in Bristol, as well as the SuperLambBanana statues in Liverpool some years ago. 

Now my city is getting Lions and Unicorns! They will all be standing on the platform to welcome the Olympic torch when it arrives by train into Peterborough on July 3.

This is the lion I will be painting this weekend. Isn't he a beauty?

I've got some preliminary ideas shown below here in acrylic, basically I think my lion is going to made up of many different brightly coloured illustrations, all connected to Peterborough, spread over him like a patchwork blanket. The illustration of a pomegranate represents Katherine of Aragon, who is buried in our cathedral. To this day people still leave flowers and pomegranates (the symbol of her family) at her grave.

if you live in Peterborough, come to the Museum this weekend to see me and the other artists painting our lions. I'm nervous but also really excited. The painting will be taking place over the next couple of weeks. I'll post pictures of his progress as I go.

Photoshop brushwork

At university I used photoshop a lot. Fast forward a few years and I'm shocked at how rubbish I am on it! I'm trying to create painterly pictures with it. Today I've been painting with acrylics and watercolour, and as soon as I find my cord, I'll upload the photos. 

The painting is to prepare for a really exciting project I'm involved in next weekend: painting one of four life-sized lion statues to go on display in my city, in preparation for the Olympic torch visit. This thursday I led a workshop with some Peterborough residents to come up with ideas for the design, it went really well. I provided each participant with a blank 'Peterborough alphabet', and they all filled in each letter with something from Peterborough. At the moment I know that the design will be colourful, and that it will involve intricate details from Peterborough's past and present, lots and lots of different elements all scattered all over.

In other news check out my friend's blog, a very talented and prolific painter and illustrator, Carly Allen-Fletcher

Tomorrow I'll be putting on my handmade red dress with the black dots, a dash of lipstick and beads, and going out on my bike into the city to celebrate the Jubilee, first at a Big Lunch where my giant greetings card will be signed by everybody and sent to the Queen (see blog post below), then perhaps onto the Green Backyard for more celebrating. If anyone else is celebrating, I hope you have fun!

Thank you Ma'am

A very very last minute commission - a community holding a street party near me wants an enormous thank you card for the Queen made, which can be signed by everyone on the day. Nice idea, no?

USURP Gallery zine fair, London

Have a look at these photos I took today at Usurp Gallery's zine fair in Harrow, London. Great people, fabulous zines, cute location and terrific food made by volunteers.

This is the back view of the gallery, I was outside at the bottom of the 'garden' in a large, brightly lit summerhouse type building. It was well attended, with about twelve tables in all, and the variety of zines available was excellent. I had a happy browse and bought postcards, zines, badges and art work. Occasionally I ran back to my own table to sell the odd colouring book or issue of Any Old Iron.

These guys are The Gym: check out their twitter and tumblr. They do beautiful posters (On 200 GSM! Whoa! You kind of had to be there), as well as zines, a hand stamp, and other lovely print based products. I bought one of their notebooks, and had a great chat with them. Thanks GYM for good conversation and great zines.

My table: messy as usual. You can see, if you squint, my new wordsearch  promotion postcards, my brown Thinking Notebook for zine ideas (I just love notebooks) and my join the dots sheets.

Such a great day, thank you Rachel and Rose for organising and for stocking my zines. I will definitely be going back, and it has inspired me in my tentative goal to organise something similar in Peterborough. Watch this space. As ever, if you want to swap zines with me then contact me for info, or visit my shop to contribute to my teabag fund.

Silence is boring...

But it's been down to a busy, busy life. I've got a sore throat at the moment which luckily doesn't affect my ability to type, so here we go.

This year has started really well for me, with a number of exciting jobs headed my way. I completed some project branding for a local competition called How Morland Court Got Its Name, it was great fun to do, and on top of the flyer I illustrated, I also got to deliver a workshop to local children and help them prepare entries for the competition. I really love talking to people and creating art with them so this was a golden opportunity.
I've also been making adjustments to my website, it's almost there. Next month I'll be running some more workshops in Peterborough in conjunction with Vivacity, and getting involved in a hugely exciting artists' project tied up with the Olympics. More of that when I know more.

Unfortunately this blog has suffered a bit, what with full time work, illustration commissions, swapping zines and trying to have a life. I want to get back into blogging and also featuring people on here again, so get in touch if you'd like to be on here.

This is some of the stuff I've been up to lately.

Illustration Friday– 'Intention'

His intentions become clear as I prepare to lose another game. Why oh why can't I grasp the art of strategy? This is a sneak peak of an illustration that will appear in issue #2 of the zine Any Old Iron. You can buy issue #1 here.

Time to plan my dinner party

Know any good recipes?