Welcome 2018!

Hello and welcome to my blog 2018! My exciting news is that I am artist-in-residence to Victoria magazine and I am thrilled to bits. You can read more about it here on the magazine's website

Years ago an art editor I worked with used to post copies of Victoria to me and later I subscribed; it then went out of print for a time but is now back in circulation, this time with Hoffman Media. Victoria is a bimonthly women's lifestyle magazine celebrating all that is beautiful in life and promising a return to loveliness - an excellent sentiment wouldn't you agree? Below is one of the pages in the January/February edition featuring one of my prints. You can find this print and much more in my Etsy shop Acornmoon.

The year so far has been cold, grey and miserable and at times it has been difficult to find inspiration. Apart from a few snowy days and some amazing sunsets, I am feeling ready to say goodbye to winter. This time of year is always difficult and I am reminded of personal losses, especially that of my parents and siblings. Enough of that, life moves on and so do I.

In my garden today I found these tiny snowdrops bravely daring the cold January rain. Roll on spring!

                                        

Colour

We have all had enough doom and gloom for one month so I thought you might like to see some Autumnal colour. These are some of the things that have lifted my heart. To begin with a visit to Little Moreton Hall, a magnificent Tudor house close to my home, set amongst beech trees and surrounded by a moat. The older I get the more important these simple pleasures are to me.

I am writing this whilst waiting for an exhibition called "colour" to open. The Sunday opening times at The Fitzwilliam in Cambridge are from twelve noon so I am taking advantage of a quiet morning to catch up on updating my blog. I have heard good reports about this exhibition and I am looking forward to learning more about colour in medieval times and the work that went into creating paints and pigments.

Earlier this year I worked on a gilded painting and have been trying to create another version to offfer as a digital print. I managed to change some of the golds to reds and worked out a way to reproduce the illuminated effects. White Hart is now available as an open edition print in my Etsy shop.

I hope that your world is colour filled too!

The Dream Quilt

Some of you may remember last year I illustrated a small format, hard cover book called "Can it be True?" for Long Barn Books. Earlier this year I was thrilled to be invited to work on another title for the same publisher. This time for a book entitled The Dream Quilt by Adele Geras.

Perhaps just once in a lifetime a dream job comes along. For a textile designer who also illustrates books this was my dream commission. Each illustration represents one square of a patchwork quilt. Adele Geras's enchanting writing begins:

"I threaded silk through a silver needle to make a cover for your bed.
Rest your head, close your eyes. I’ll stitch you dreams and lullabies."

We start with a house, where everyone sleeps except for a child.....

This is the house, from The Dream Quilt. Illustration by Valerie Greeley

Although the book would sit happily in a Christmas stocking it is not specifically a Christmas title; some of the imagery is summertime, we have shells and beaches, fish and flowers. There are tigers and trains, bears and dolls. Each illustration makes up a part of the final quilt as the characters dream their own dreams.

The illustrations begin as black ink pen drawings; these are then scanned and made into a digital file. I used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create the final images, layering textures and embroidered effects to complete the job.

This is the doll, from The Dream Quilt. Illustration by Valerie Greeley.

The publication date is December 12th, in the meantime I hope you enjoy a glimpse into the creative process. I hope to put some copies in my shop as soon as they arrive. I am also waiting to see some fabric samples, more about that later!

This is the ship from The Dream Quilt. Illustration by Valerie Greeley

Adele has written her own account of how she came to write the book, you can read all about it here-

For more information about Adele Geras visit her website, there you will find details of Adele's other works. I can recommend "Cover Your Eyes"- a story about a fashion designer haunted by her past. You may also be interested to know that Adele's daughter is an accomplished writer too, her name is Sophie Hannah. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this commission was that I got to know Adele a little as we discussed the book as it progressed. I have a feeling you will like her too.

To visit Long Barn Books please follow the link.

The Message Was Heard

In an earlier post I mentioned that "Can it be true?" by Susan Hill has been featured in a Christmas Carol Competition. Out of a huge number of entries six carols have been chosen and performed by the BBC singers. Listeners are being asked to pick their favourite which will be performed on Christmas day.

As from today you can listen to the six finalists in the BBC Radio 3 Christmas carol competition and register your vote by following this link. I am not sure if you need to live in the UK to hear these BBC podcasts?

My illustration above is one of the pages from the book "Can it be true?" It features some of the animals mentioned in the prose poem. Having spent so long visualising the images in the text it is something of a marvel to me to hear the words set to music. I am in awe of anyone who can create music and also those gifted with beautiful voices. Singing was never my strong point, even my little grandson implores me to stop!

This year we will be having a very busy family Christmas and I am already feeling great waves of panic at the thought of the food shopping and preparation ahead. In order to lessen the stress I have reduced the stock in my on-line shops, you can still buy books but they may not arrive in time for Christmas if you live overseas.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a Very Happy And Blessed Christmas. Thank you so much for your support, words of encouragement and friendship over the past months. I really do appreciate it. xxx

UPDATE- Congratulations to Jacqueline Burley whose Christmas Carol setting won the "Can it be True?" Christmas carol competition organised by BBC Radio 3. Jacqueline's version is a worthy winner and has done a brilliant job in her musical interpretation of Susan Hill's words.

Beautiful Dreamer

"Beautiful dreamer, beam on my heart,
E'en as the morn on the streamlet and sea;
Then will all clouds of sorrow depart,
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!" by Stephen Foster.

This little sleeping dormouse illustration was painted as an illustration for my book "A Book of Days".
When the days shorten and the temperature drops I sometimes wish I could hibernate, possibly waking up for a brief spell over Christmas. At the moment I feel as if I am wading through mud and achieving nothing.

If you follow Rima Staines at The Hermitage you may have heard about her quest to raise money for a storytelling project and if you are avery quick you might be interested in this auction here at Hedgespoken.

Don't be like the dormouse and sleep all the way through. x

"Can it be True?" BBC Competition.

August came and went in the blink of an eye and now it seems we are almost into autumn. A new term for those returning to school and great excitement for a certain little boy who starts school tomorrow. How I wish I could be a fly on the wall!

I seem to have been very busy with one thing and another. I have redesigned my website in order to make changes and updates easily without having to ask for help. I made it on blogger, better the devil you know, it will be a work in progress.

A box full of ‘Can it be True?” book samples arrived followed by some rather exciting news. Those of you who listen to BBC Radio 3 Breakfast might have heard about a new Christmas Carol Competition. Listeners are being asked to set the words of a new version of “Can it be True?” by Susan Hill to create a new Christmas carol. If you are musically inclined you might like to enter, details are available here-

I took this photograph to give you some idea of the scale of the book. As you can see it is Christmas stocking size.

I hope to have some of the Christmas books for sale soon in my bookshop, maybe in the next few days. It seems a bit too soon to think about the festive season so maybe I will leave it for a while, not wanting to wish away the last of the summer.

We celebrated our wedding anniversary by a trip to Bodnant garden, which is probably the most beautiful garden I have ever visited. With panoramic views of Snowdonia, wooded glades, waterfalls, lily ponds, terraces and rose gardens all combine to create an earthly paradise. We have seen the garden before but not for some years now and noticed many improvements, we hope to return soon.

 Are you looking forward to the next series of Downton Abbey when it returns to our television screens soon? I love cosy Sunday nights with a new craft project, a glass of wine and good old Downton. I am hoping for lots lavish interiors and posh frocks and people looking wistfully in the mid distance whilst opining that "times are a-changing".

You may have noticed that I have been playing around on the Spoonflower site. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this website, it is a print on demand site for textiles, wallpapers and wraps. I thought I might try out some new ideas and make available again some designs that have been retired. Like my website this is another work in progress activity. At the moment I am waiting for some samples before deciding what to do next.

Sometimes it seems that I have so many projects on the go and hardly any finished but I am pleased to report that I finally managed to complete the miniature painting I started in the summer. Now what shall I paint next?

Good intentions.

Hi, it has been a while! I have had good intentions to update my blog but time has been against me. I hope there is somebody still out there?

Christmas was a very busy time for us, we had lots of visitors and with all the extra domestic duties I also had a very heavy workload, anyway, enough of my excuses, I hope this year has been good to you so far.

Earlier this month I had a watercolour painting exhibited in Mayfair, London by “Art of the Imagination”. The painting was a new work, inspired by “The Night before Christmas”. As you can see I got a little carried away with the border.





I have been experimenting printing onto canvas; so far I have tried out some images for stretched canvases and handmade books. I plan to do some more when time allows. The little origami book was made with a printed canvas cover and the insides where decorative marbled papers.



The book below was a special find in my local Oxfam shop, it was published by The Golden Cockerel Press in 1937 with original wood engravings by Gwenda Morgan, isn’t it a treasure? I thought you might like it too.



When I have not been at my desk I have been walking Ted, who is in the doghouse yet again. This time for chasing and cornering a squirrel who promptly bit him on the nose. He was so humiliated, in front to his girlfriend too! As you can see from my photograph, the weather has been mild, very wet and windy but so far no extreme cold spells. Some of the leaves remain on the trees; the birds are singing and nesting as if it were spring. I wonder if they are right to be so optimistic, I do hope so.

Christmas Blessings.

I would like to thank everyone who has visited my blog, or supported my shop or work throughout the year.

Your comments are very much appreciated, thank you so much!

May you all have a Blessed Christmas and a Happy and Peaceful New Year.

I hope to catch up with all of you in 2014.

xoxoxoxo.

All hot and bothered.

We are in the grip of winter now and my garden has been visited with many different species of birds, feasting on windfall apples and berries. With Christmas looming ever closer, despite my love for this season, it has the habit of filling me with mild panic. I have done hardly any shopping, have no tree or decoration in place and have been stricken with a horrible allergic skin condition which is driving me slowly crazy.



So instead of focusing on the negative I thought I would share with you some things that I have noticed and that you might enjoy. In my last few posts I have told you about my plans to publish my children’s books and over on the website of Martin West, my former publisher and now my mentor, I came across this charming book. You know how it is when you see something so simple and yet so clever and you say to yourself “I wish I had thought of that”? Here is a lovely picture book about a pair of socks; it is the brainchild of Japanese artist Noriko Matsubara. Bocchi and Pocchi are no ordinary pair of socks. They are the best of friends; then one night Pocchi disappears!

Now I know that many of my friends in the blogosphere are keen knitters, Noriko has a free pattern to knit these charming character socks. Would that not make a very special Christmas gift, a book and sock combo?



Whilst on the subject of gifts and knitting, my friend Frances has opened her Etsy shop. I am the proud owner of a pair of her wrist warmers, shown on a previous post. I also looked on as she knit the most beautiful scarf whilst in her stay in the UK.

Meanwhile, I have been busy with my granny squares, to date 30 pink and 30 white, for me something of a record. I hope to update you all on that soon.

We enjoyed a little break in a country cottage in Cumbria, taking the dog for some long and invigorating lakeshore walks and taking lots of photographs for future reference. Whilst taking a little R and R I bought myself a copy of Country Living December issue, and who should be featured there but none other than Celia Hart who came to a virtual tea party not so long ago!

The cottage had an Aga cooker in a rather small kitchen; the effect was a little overpowering. Anybody who has tried to cook a full English breakfast on an Aga will understand the phrase “slaving over a hot stove”, so when life gets you all hot and bothered, what better image than an expanse of tranquil water. And now, I shall take my leave, bye for now. x

John and Fiona Owen exhibition.

If you are in the Gloucestershire area might I suggest a visit to this most extraordinary exhibition of paintings by John and Fiona Owen. I have written before on this blog about my admiration for these artists in particular the work of Fiona Owen who paints in miniature on gilded wooden panels. She paints in oils with teeny tiny watercolour brushes and produces the most wonderful work. You can see their work in more detail here- on their website and learn about their inspirations, however nothing compares with seeing the paintings up close. I know many of you live oversees so I have put together a little selection of images to give you an idea of the exhibition.
Details of the dates and opening times are to be found on their website.

The artists live in a converted chapel high up a green and wooded hillside overlooking the village of Chalford. You climb the steep stone steps and enter through the chapel gate, past pots of plants, through the ancient doorway and up the stairs to the studio.



Prepare to be dazzled, the walls are painted and gilded with images of friends and family worthy of Benozzo Gozzoli.

There are works of art on globes,



On walls,



You might see the artists at work, here is Fiona working on a gilded panel. Firstly she prepares the wood with gesso. She then transfers the design and prepares the areas to be gilded. The gilding has to be done before the painting begins, as the gold would stick to the paint. Finally she is ready to paint in the details using oil paint applied with very fine watercolour brushes.



And after the studio visit you are free to wander through the garden and to admire the spectacular views. The garden has many “rooms” each has its own character which are a delight to discover as you climb up the hillside.





But don’t take my word for it, go and see it for yourself!

Down The Garden Path

Thank goodness for a bit of sunshine at last, doesn’t it do the heart good?
It is hard to stay indoors when the garden beckons and a recent visit from an artist friend from oversees proved the perfect excuse to revisit Tatton Park.



You may remember my interview with Celeste from not so long ago?
It was fun to meet up again and the hours flew by as we chatted non-stop about gardens and art and everything else besides!



The walled and knot gardens are perhaps my favourite, I love the repetition of form, the patterns made by brick and box hedges and the way that the herbs and plants therein appear like tiny embroidered jewels. I was so inspired by the garden that I decided to create a new notebook called “The Knot Garden” It contains decorative endpapers and twelve small illustrations scattered about the pages and you can see it here-





The gardens at Tatton and the surrounding parkland have always been an inspiration to me. I based lots of my illustrations from “The Acorn’s Story” on the trees and deer, insects and flowers to be found here including this fallow deer painting. I am in the process of converting this book to make it into an application for the iPad, and other digital readers but before I can send the images to Auryn Inc I need to prepare the files, a long but necessary job.



The lovely town of Knutsford is very close by, childhood home of Elizabeth Gaskell and the setting for the town of “Cranford”.
It also has the very best charity shops, possibly because it has a very affluent catchment area. I have been busy buying up old picture frames and finally got around to framing my print collection, it took so long to arrange them, what a difficult task it proved to be! up a bit, down a bit, left a bit etc….



So you can see I am torn between my garden and my computer and never quite manage to get the balance right. There are so many jobs to be done, all the rain and now the sun’s warming rays have caused a huge growth spurt and everything is bursting with life. The aquilegias are particularly pretty at the moment and have spread into every available nook and cranny. It has been lovely to see the return of the bumblebees and butterflies, including a Yellow Brimstone, I haven’t seen one of those in ages. My cup floweth over!

And the winner is....

The time has come to pick a winner for my blog giveaway. All the names have been put into Miss Mouse's Easter Bonnet and the first name out of the hat is Charisse, who incidentally was the first person to enter the draw. Well done Charisse! In case you don't know this very talented lady you might like to visit her blog The Faerie Patch

It was so nice to read all your kind comments from friends old and new, so thank you each and every one xxx.

In case you are wondering, the illustration above was one I created many years ago as a greeting card for Camden Graphics Ltd.

Winter Fox Trot

Despite several attempts to pretend spring has arrived, placing daffodils in vases and filling the house with the smell of hyacinths, winter still has us in its grip. As I type this, the snow is falling outside my window and the sky is a leaden grey. I don’t mind the snow so much but I hate the bitter cold winds and the gloom.

For the last couple of months I have been busy creating a new collection of designs for the various trade shows. I had a day walking around the Spring fair in Birmingham and enjoyed chatting to my agent, other artists and manufacturers, I even spotted a few of my own products which was gratifying. The show seemed much smaller than in previous years but still a great place to visit and trend spot.



In between days of incessant rain we have had some lovely bright sparkly days, blue skies and light. Heartwarming days that lift the spirits and make me want to paint. Nature is always the most inspiring of subjects and walking Ted in all weathers provides many opportunities to observe wildlife. I decided to start a new painting, trying to capture the colours of winter and the shapes and patterns of the fern stems, seed heads and dead grasses that appear beneath the melting snow. I love the repetition of natural forms, the details on the tree bark, the way the light gives a richness and warmth to a winter’s afternoon. I decided that the painting needed life so added a fox, a familiar sight around these parts and can sometimes be seen in the daylight.



I like to work on stretched Bockingford cold press paper, which allows the paint to be lifted when water is applied and then removed with a tissue. I first painted a wash over the entire piece and then worked on top, slowly adding the details to create the desired effect. I use tiny brush strokes applied with a series 7 Windsor and Newton Finest Sable brush. I used bleach, process white, gouache and white pencil to create the snow-covered areas and to pick out the details on the seed heads. As with all my work I never feel entirely happy, often adding bits, removing, changing and fiddling until a point is reached where I have to say enough is enough. It is not perfection but it is as good as I can make it and overall I am happy with the result. If you click on the images you will see more details and see how the work develops over time.



The final result can be seen here in my Etsy shop.I decided to call the painting "Winter Fox Trot"