Floral fringe pics

Here are a few photos of the Floral fringe event I took part in over the weekend in the beautiful grounds of Bignor Park. The fair was a great success, and had nearly 2000 visitors over the two days. The sun even put in an appearance on Saturday! I haven't done much of this sort of thing before but really enjoyed the experience and got some good feedback.

Floral fringe fair

Next weekend I will be taking part in the Floral fringe fair at Bignor park near Pulborough in West Sussex, selling my books, limited edition prints, screen printed tote bags, greetings cards and more... It promises to be a great event with lots going on including contemporary crafts, photography, wildlife stalls, butterfly and bee plants, local food producers and a sausage sizzle! The fair is open Saturday and Sunday, from 10am - 5pm and I'll be there both days. More info can be found on the Bignor park website and Floral fringe Facebook page. If you're in the area it would be great to see you!

Test piece for Brigitte

A little while ago I was asked to produce a test illustration for German women's magazine 'Brigitte'. The brief was to illustrate a well known phrase or saying about love, in this case 'We depend on our partner as a child on it's parents'. I had a couple of attempts at the image - the first idea was to draw a penguin couple because I thought it was a nice story of dependency - the male looking after the egg while the female looks for food, plus the egg is suggestive of the child which will then become dependent on it's parents. The second (more immediate and preferred idea) was of a bicycle made for two! 

Secret 7" exhibition

Last month I took part in an exhibition of seven inch record sleeves at Idea Generation Gallery in Shoreditch. Around 700 designs were on show, each inspired by one of seven tracks by The Cure, Florence and the Machine, Bombay Bicycle club, Noah and the Whale, Ben Howard, CSS and DJ Shadow. Similar to the RCA's secret postcard exhibition, the artist's names were not revealed until a piece was bought - whereupon the purchaser could find the name of the artist hidden inside, plus a limited edition vinyl of the relevant track. My chosen track was 'Black flies' by Ben Howard and the artwork is inspired by the lyric 'Maybe you were the ocean when I was just a stone'. Sleeves were sold in aid of the Teenage Cancer trust.

Chile and Argentina!

I haven't posted much recently as I've spent the last month or so travelling in Chile and Argentina. It was a great trip and we saw some incredible things, including the Atacama desert, salt flats in Bolivia and Iguazu falls in Argentina. Here's a few of the many photos from the trip!

Bologna book fair

Last week I was at the Bologna book fair where I had a busy but great time as usual. A huge range of inspiring and beautiful books and illustrations, lots of nice people and of course delicious food and sunshine! This year I was very happy to have some work selected for the Illustrator's exhibition, and also rather shocked to be nominated for the Astrid Lindgren award. The award is anounced live from Sweden during the fair, and went to Dutch author Guus Kuijer. Here's some pics of the exhibition and fair, as well as the temporary book shop in Piazza Maggiore, with my chicken or egg illustration above the doorway!

New York Times

Here is a recent image about bilingualism which appeared in last Sunday's New York Times Sunday Review.