Happy Mothering Sunday

Happy Mothering Sunday!

I always design my Mother's Day card range with my own Mum in mind.  This backfires when she's seen all the designs pre-Mother's Day and I need a special design just for her!  This year I had 3 hand painted designs I worked with.  They were available to buy at the cafe local to us in Old Amersham, Seasons Cafe Deli.

These last two are the special ones I painted for my Granny and my Mum.  My Gran's one is a larger version of one of the above designs and my Mum's is a heart of (my interpretation of them anyway) English Daisies, with a personalised message.

I had a few orders from friends as well as selling them in the shop, which was lovely!  If you've seen something you like and don't know how to get hold of one, then please leave a message on this blog post and I'll get back to you ASAP.

Do you hand make your Mum cards or do you opt for a pretty/quirky card from a shop?

Exhibition - Artist of the month

Artist of the month

So YAY!  My first solo exhibition.  I'm pretty proud of it all.   The cafe where I used to work has been having an 'Artist of the Month' feature since about September last year.  It was a huge hit and success with artists and locals a like!  It's a great feature of the cafe now, a new artist, or group of artists, every month.  Works from all disciplines are welcome, from watercolours and oils to printmaking and photographs.  

So I have March all for myself!  After enjoying all of the previous work that has been up, I'm excited that my turn has come around.  I managed to get a bit of branding together for myself with some bright stickers and my globe illustration so everything tied together nicely.  I have a range of illustrations available.  From silkscreen and drypoint prints to watercolour illustrations, digital prints and books to pocket mirrors and magnets - there is something for every budget!

The space in the cafe is ideal for displaying artwork.  As you can see its a gorgeous light space, with a whole wall of windows, a roof that lets in even more light and a lovely long wall for all the work!  My work varies quite a bit, but in between wall lights I was able to group pieces together in sections, as it were, and it's worked so well.

There were drinks and nibbles and tea and cake available.  Lovely cupcakes on vintage tiered cake stands were scattered about on the tables along with information flyers and table talkers.  I invested in a couple of stands to display my prints and silkscreen books on.  Being the busy bee that i am, I painted a special 'Rowan flower' piece in watercolour for the exhibition which along with the 'Love Heart' design from the sweetie range, I had put on to pocket mirrors.  These were a huge success and will soon also be available in my Etsy shop for those of you who are not so local and can't make it to the exhibition.

I had a lovely preview evening, thank you to all who came!  The cafe is just so gorgeous when it gets dark.  There are fairy lights on the outside, and those, along with cute table lights and soft wall lighting...it's just a bit magical.

Coco Marie

Commission for Coco Marie

I've been a massive admirer of Coco Marie in Old Amersham for a good couple of years now.  It was on route from my car to work in the days that I worked at Seasons, and since I don't do that anymore I now enjoy the online aspect of the Boutique.

Last year, for the opening of Seasons Cafe at Rowan I illustrated the Seasons Cafe Deli in Old Amersham, to remind them of the Rowan Cafe's Mother Cafe!  The lovely Jen, happened to spot this particular illustration and got in touch for me to illustrate their little Boutique 'Coco Marie'.  I was obviously more than thrilled to get this commission!  It's so lovely illustrating the buildings in my town, and even nicer to know how much it is appreciated.

Above, you can see the final illustration.  I'm really happy with the finished piece, it shows off the quirky nature of the shop (it being in such a petite building!) and the cuteness of it.  Below, are some photos I took inside the Boutique for inspiration.  It gives you the whole picture - as it were - of what the illustration is showing off!

Thank you for reading.  Have you been into Coco marie, or do you have a local Boutique like it?