Sunday Times Magazine - Art on Sunday

The Sunday Times Magazine has a had a wee bit of a make-over recently and they have a new feature called Art On Sunday. It's a pretty tiny spot but it does *ping* out of a page of Witter interviews and other written features. I was asked by them to illustrate the theme of "Sunday".

Out came my beloved Pentel Japanese Color brush pen and a slightly more muted and cosy colour palette. Dogs are a big part of my life, especially at the weekend so they had to feature. My husband cooks the BEST roast and roast tatties, Yorkshire puds and gravy ever and when it is on the table, the dogs circle like polite sharks. Birdwatching...well, I confess, since I moved to the countryside I seem to notice birds and wildlife a lot more than when I was in the city (but I don't own a pair of binoculors...yet). Don't ask me where the idea for the Birdwatcher came from - usually just the act of drawing gives me a chain of ideas - but I like that it made me laugh...and in my head the dog is just on the point of tapping Mr Twitcher on the shoulder to say "You do realise...?"

Just another Sunday. With a moody heron.

Little Black Book of Seafood

This was a dream illustration and lettering job that first landed on my desk almost a year ago, took a while to get going, then BAM! - it's everywhere now! Here's the story:

 The lovely and sassy team at The Leith (an Ad agency in Edinburgh who I have worked with many times before) got in touch to say their client, First Great Western, were collaborating with award winning chef Mitch Tonks to produce a guide to the best seafood restaurants, cafés and fish and chip bars in the South west of Britain...and would I like to illustrate it? Why, yes I would, thank you very much.

 Now, I love my seafood, love cooking seafood and I live in a fishing village so I felt very at home with this project - I just needed to look out my window for inspiration: Crab and lobster creels all stacked up, blokes fishing on Cellardyke Harbour (catching pollock), the prawn boats from Pittenweem out in all weather and the haddock on my plate at the Anstruther Fish Bar, served with a mug of strong tea.

I adore drawing foodie things and on this project I got a pretty free reign to produce imagery, maps, lettering and also a selection of wee line spot illustrations for the book. Heaven.

sketches... crammed in like sardines

As an added bonus, the book was animated for online viewing and you can see the whole thing HERE

Of course, First Great Western are promoting the book to inspire people to travel to Devon, Dorset, Cornwall and South Wales, explore the region and discover some fishy foodie gems tucked away down there in the Southwest. A culinary pilgrimage, if you like...with sporks.

Little Black Book of Seafood was launched at Paddington Station in London, where Mitch and fellow chef, Mark Hix created a pop-up dining room, offered oysters and fizz to rush hour commuters and had a good chat about how great the quality and range of seafood on offer in the Southwest is!
What I really like is that all proceeds from the sale of the book ( it costs £1.50) are donated to The Fishermen's Mission, a charity dedicated to helping the lives of fishermen and their families.

Enjoy the book and if you love a little bit of fishy in your dishy then please take a moment to donate to the Fishermen's Mission here
 Now, someone pass the tartare sauce, my chips are getting cold!

Slàinte mhath! • [ slanj'-uh va' ]

...or, Benromach Single Malt Whisky ( no"e") and Me

Neil, David and Richard Urquhart of Gordon & MacPhail toasting Keith and Mike!

On a cold winter's day last year I was contacted by renaissance man Doug Alexander at Stuff Creative and asked if I fancied getting involved in a bit of branding for a small, exclusive single malt Scotch whisky distillery called Benromach.
Now, I have been involved with port, vodka and beer campaigns before but never a Scotch whisky, so of course I said YES. I am a Scottish illustrator after all and it's our national drink...I'd be daft not to!

Benromach, founded in 1898, is the smallest distillery in Speyside. 30 years ago the brand very nearly went extinct when the distillery was closed down. Rescue came from Elgin based bottlers and distillers Gordon & MacPhail who took it on and overhauled the  distillery buildings and stills in Forres and the distillery was finally officially reopened by HRH Prince Charles in 1998.

my illustration of the Benromach Distillery

Today just two ordinary (yet extraordinary), local blokes distill the Benromach whisky - no computers, no drama, nada. Just Keith and Mike, making lovely award winning water of life.
And it is this message that Stuff Creative and Gordon & MacPhail really wanted to tell people about the Benromach whisky:  that it's home made and hand crafted.
David Urquhart, Joint Managing Director of Gordon & MacPhail, the family-run Elgin company which owns Benromach commented: “Benromach is a handmade, boutique whisky which is lovingly crafted by Keith and Mike. They are the essence of Benromach and so we thought it appropriate that they were placed front and centre of our new concept."

Keith and Mike, with the whisky stills behind them.

 My illustration and lettering style and my way of working really chimed with this branding message and so I travelled up to the distillery in the north of Scotland one snowy day to meet Keith and Mike, have a blether, a few tastings and get shown around...and do some drawings of them in their place of work. What a pleasure!

I came away with lots of rum tales ( the distillery is haunted by a cat, apparently) and a great impression of how to portray them both in the illustrations I had been invited to do. How lovely to actually meet and talk to the subject of my illustrations face to face. Yes, I could have Googled them but my heading north really made a difference, I think, to the feel of the final illustrations.
The project continues - an animated film, and even a book have been discussed!
Whisky without an "e" is big business for Scotland right now... Benromach have just reported that their global sales increased by 40% in 2012 and exports increased by 55%. I like to think that my illustrations had a small part to play in that success!

Meanwhile, my illustrations of Keith and Mike now appear internationally on huge trade show and food festival backdrops and banners, in advertising spreads, on posters and even as life size cardboard cut outs that people have their photo taken with, dram in hand, toasting them with the traditional Scots Gaelic, Slàinte mhath! - pronounced slanj'-uh va' - meaning Good Health!

Keith at the Benromach stand at the Royal Highland Show 2012

Have a Cosy Christmas!

Hello lovely people! Here's hoping you have all (unlike me) done your shopping, wrapped your presents, hummed a carol, stashed your mince pies and cracked open the sherry already. No? Well, you still have a few frenzied days yet!

I am currently rushed off my feet with Christmas commissions, which is great but it does mean I have to think/plan/act like an SAS crack troop in order to get all my other Christmassy tasks completed too.

Needless to say, I have started the epic task of updating, refreshing and generally spring cleaning my website, which was certainly needing the cobwebs blowing from it! I have new plans for it for the New Year, so do keep popping by to see what's new.

In the meantime, enjoy this little snowy mountain cabin and please have a lovely, joyful and cheerful festive break...and do give a little thought to those who may not be having such a happy time too.

Queen Kook: Portrait of a Bohemian Blue-Blood

Kook is the latest portrait in my on-going series of glamorous  illustrations which I rather bizarrely entitle "The Hair Girls". This series, which also includes Frisco and USAville, is inspired by my increasing appreciation of portraiture, as well as fabulous fashion photographs in Vogue, Harpers Bazaar etc. I adore a good fashion moment, me... and this series lets me play and experiment with fashion illustration. 

So, with Kook I really wanted to draw something different, using a more muted palette and rich handmade textures as well as try out a new style of lettering... cue research trip!

In particular, I got lots of ideas from my many visits to the wonderful National Portrait Gallery in London - specifically the Elizabethan and Tudor rooms - and also the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh too. I have become fascinated by portraits from the 16th-19th Century of royalty and nobility as they are so embellished, bling-bling and loaded with symbolism yet still so formal and rigid in the way the sitter is posed.

© The National Gallery

 Quite often the painter of these portraits was an "unknown artist", often Flemish or Dutch. However, Hans Holbein is the artist most associated with painting the Tudor nobility - King Henry VIII, in particular. Holbein's portrait of A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling, painted around 1526 is one of my favourites from this period. It has a simplicity and freshness to it that makes it stand out from other portraits of the time. Apparently it may have been one half of a marriage portrait - what did her husband look like? What did he wear? What animal was he posing with? I'd like to see that portrait too.

When I was wee, I was fascinated with the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, especially as she had her head cut off ! Here she is depicted (with her head) on her tomb in Westminster Abbey in all her pious and mournful beauty.

tomb of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots at Westminster Abbey

 Last but not least, the whimsical work of Guiseppe Archimboldo is an inspiration for Kook too - this particular picture, Spring, painted in 1563 being a favourite. Isn't it lovely? He literally has rosy cheeks!

If you fancy a bit of blue-blooded nobility adorning your walls, Kook is available as a signed and numbered print!

2012 East Neuk Open Studios

East Neuk Open Studios - June 16-17 and 23-24. 10.30am to 6.30pm

I have done tonnes of new work especially for ENOS this year! The above print, "Lion Food" is a new member of my popular "Not Cute" animal series.  It is a 50x70cm digital print on 310gsm Studio Contour paper and beautifully framed in black...or you can just buy it unframed if you prefer!

Please come along and visit my studio for a chat, see work in progress and look at all my other new work. Be sure to drop in on all the many other artists and designers that live and work in this bonnie part of Scotland!

ENOS website and brochure download HERE
Follow us on Twitter too @eastneukopenstudios

#ENOS2012
#eastneukart

NEW PRINTS!

Amongst all the jobs and workshop planning, I have been trying to get some new prints done. I sell my work through two galleries, Funky Scottish and The Outbye Gallery, as well as during East Neuk Open Studios and it is about time I made some lovely new work to hang on their walls!
So, I am expanding the ongoing series of large, animal themed prints which I call "Not Cute", which so far comprises of Baboon & Owl, Like a Rabbit in Headlights, Forest Deer, Urban Fox, Hibernacula Woods and Bird Puddles (I may have missed a couple out...). New Not Cute prints will include lions, otters, horses, fish, more birds and possibly a dog. The lion print is looking seriously good, I have to admit :-) I'll post it when it is completed.

BUT...I do love my fashion-y, girly-wirly illustrations and so am adding to that series too (which I  call "Hair Girls" for some bizarre reason). The above image ,called Frisco, is one of 3 new prints in that series.
Image area is 28x28cm and with a nice crisp mount will measure 50x50cm, perfect for ready made frames from Ikea etc. Of course, if you prefer a bigger version and want it custom framed, then we can talk about that too!