Onward Ho!

I'm working on a new website, sifting through mountains of stuff and dreaming of becoming a bicycle gypsy! Sadly my bike got stolen by some very clever people last friday so that's on hold for now, anyway here's a little peek of one of my new paintings :)

Cox & Kings

Hello! I've only just got back from my travels and was itching for a fun project to get stuck into when I was invited to take part in a 'bloggers challenge' for Cox & Kings, the oldest travel company in England (established in 1758!). The theme is 'Inspiring India' which couldn't be more perfect since I spent 6 months there during my travels, and it really was so inspiring.. especially all the naughty bandit monkeys!

Anyway the challenge is to create a piece of artwork, which will then be exhibited at a special India themed evening at the Royal Geographical Society in London, (the highlights will be a talk by Mark Tully on The Mind of India, as well as a specially curated exhibit of maps, photographs and archival material from the Society’s India-related collections spanning more than 500 years!)  All artworks will then go to a vote at the event, and the winner gets an amazing prize, so fingers crossed :)
If you're interested in attending the event go here -  http://coxandkings.eventbrite.co.uk/  also if you want to go on a dream trip and escape the English winter, check out Cox and Kings luxury holidays, as well as their group holidays which all look lovely.

It's going to take a little while to get my head around being back after almost 3 years away, but for now I'm loving spending my days cycling around and drawing and catching up with old friends and making new ones, I'm also hoping for a nice late Indian summer now that there's a hint of autumn chill in the air.. x

'I do' said the elephant to the kangaroo

These are some of the animals I drew for two dear friends wedding, they wanted a different animal for each table!

Rain

It's been a rainy week in Melbourne!

Imaginary Town

SUN-day

I am having a lovely chilled sunday in Melbourne, I've been here for a week now and just LOVE this city! So many amazing creative people, very relaxed, easy going and friendly, and so much cool stuff going on- I think I could stay forever!

Carnival!

We had a carnivalesque fancy-dress party a couple of weekends ago here. I was so amazed at the creativity and thought that everyone put into their costumes, and people really got into the idea of carnival as an escape from reality and a chance to express other facets of your personalities! it was good fun :)

Birds!

Patterns and birds, two of my favorite things to draw at the moment..

Rabbit Painting

Continuing the easter theme from yesterday, I remembered this rabbit I painted on the door of our beach hut in Om Beach, India around this time last year :)

Easter Vibrations

Hey Folks, Happy Sunday and I hope you've been enjoying all the recent festivities and are having fun wherever you are..
I have managed to get completely stuck near a little town called Denmark in Western Australia, and at the moment I'm not sure if i'm going to make it anywhere else ever! I love it so much,. One of the highlights of our time here so far was the Easter weekend which included cupcakes, live music and a great little arts festival, good friends, great food, bbqs, beach time, toasty indoor fires at night, cosy time and unbelievable views of the clouds, stars and sea up at Bazza's hilltop hideaway as well as an easter egg, easter bunny and two chocolate wombats..! So all in all it was pretty good. These are a couple of easter doodles that i did during :)

Read more about Denmark arts stuff and all the cool stuff thats going on here if you fancy

Strange Buddhist drawings

These are some unusual paintings that I saw while staying at the Suan Mokk Buddhist Monastery in Southern Thailand. They are meant to teach all the aspects of Buddhism in a visual way to students and monks at the monastery, and all have deeper symbolic meanings behind them. I thought they were pretty interesting (especially the last one!) Enjoy

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Parts of Process

Hey, This is an illustration I did a few months ago- and I thought some of you might be interested to see a little bit of the process behind my work. I very rarely draw with a pencil first because I like the permanence and spontaneity of ink and the fact that 'mistakes' have to be accepted and incorporated into the drawing somehow. This also means that I'm never quite sure how a drawing will turn out until it's finished! I love the process of drawing, making marks on paper and just letting the image evolve until it feels like it's finished. Most of my work at the moment is inspired by nature, especially plants and animals, and I'm constantly amazed by all the patterns and beautiful intricate details that can be found everywhere around us..

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Maybe we will meet again in another life..

...when we are both cats!
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Temple Love

So we are settling into life on the road 'down under', enjoying the sunshine and the wide open spaces! I haven't had a chance to do much drawing for the last few weeks so thought I would dig out these photos that I've been meaning to post on here for a while - These are mosiacs from a very old temple I went to in Luang Prapang, in Laos. They completely blew me away, the whole wall was covered in these detailed little scenes made from glass. I especially love the combination of colours and the simple shapes of the figures, they make me want bring more colour into my own work, but I'm still loving my black pen so we'll see.. :)

Cats with Beards

Here's a few sunday sketchbook doodles, EnjOy

Space Invaders

:-)

Twelve Birds

Quiet Days

I have spent the last three weeks in maybe one of the most beautiful and certainly one of my favorite places in the whole world - Lake Toba in Sumatra. This was my second visit. There is an island in the middle of a lake in the middle of the biggest volcano in the world, and hardly anyone knows about it... shhh

I stumbled across this and loved it.

Although the days of the week don't really bother me much at the moment, there's just something about Sundays... don't you think?

Fish Love

Love is in the air (and the sea) this week...
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