When I was at art school still life was my favourite genre, I loved going to the college wardrobes and cupboards to select objects for my paintings. Now, for the last few weeks I have been organised enough to collect elements as I work into a scrap-book file so that at the end of the week I can make a still life with them. Although this work is digital, I have noticed that the process of composing and problem solving is the same as painting and in fact the end result resembles my paintings.

Still collecting ideas based on coastal flora to use in illustrations, I found Sea Stock this week, and on Thursday I discovered that Sea Bindweed and Beach Morning Glory are actually the same plant - I have yet to identify the little yellow flowers which I originally thought were Beach Morning Glory. I would never have known there existed such a wide variety of plants which grow on sand dunes in the UK; now I'm looking forward to visiting the beach in summertime for a good old poke around to see what I can find.

Thanks for visiting, see you next week! ​

Just as storm Ciara last week influenced my choice of colour, I sheltered from storm Dennis this week in calm, bright colours; also taking comfort after a personal incident - I upset a kettle of boiling water over my knee on Monday and burnt myself badly. I found distraction from pain in lots of mark-making and gentle, small objects. The seaside theme still prevails, here we have driftwood, seaweed and coral shapes alongside those British seaside classics: flip flops, a mug of tea, a picnic blanket, and a bucket and spade.

​Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

It has been a howling, windy week, and the three old sash windows in my work room have been shuddering and rattling like wild skeletons as the side of the house was buffeted by storm Ciara. The turmoil outside perhaps led me to select muted, calm colours for work.
It has been a while since I made a close-toned still life. I have always loved still life painting; I always used oils at art school, where I learnt painting in the traditional Scottish manner with a slightly modernist twist using tilted perspective and beautiful colour harmonies. At the moment I am working digitally on illustrations for that children's book I keep mentioning, so the images shown here were created using textures created earlier in the week for some of the characters and their environment.

This pattern emerged from a texture made (without giving too much away) for an animal in the story. It forms the animal's skin, but I could see the pattern emerging quite clearly alongside the animal's character as I worked on him. I played with colour-ways for the pattern and was pleased with these two - earth and mineral, my favourites! When I have time I would like to refine them, I already have ideas that would look great on textiles for curtains. Or tote bags. Or cushion covers. Or blankets - I think you know where I'm going.

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

We had a flurry of snow which lay for a few hours this week. Apart from that it has been unseasonably mild and very windy, and more weather warnings of high winds have been issued by the Met Office, which makes it feel more like March than the beginning of February.
By contrast, sea bindweed and beach marigolds are still providing delightful settings for summery seaside illustrations, as well as spin-off patterns - so pretty, and a nice way to welcome in February with its promise of spring and longer days.

I do like to fiddle about with filters, especially on patterns where you usually wouldn't expect to find them, and I found this fuzzy filter quite enchanting on the flowery themes.

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!