New Scotland - Nova Scotia

Memories of a great cycling trip to Nova Scotia last year. We followed the coast route and saw many buildings and scenes like this. A fabulous place - loved it.

Location Sketching

I'm really enjoying drawing buildings at the moment and so after a walk at, National Trust for Scotland property, Threave on Sunday afternoon I couldn't resist the urge to draw this one.

It was freezing and was getting dark so it was speedy quick sketching, but I managed to record enough detail to work up my final piece.

Sandyhills to Rockcliffe

I recently enjoyed a lovely walk with friends on a local coastal path we've walked several times before. The views across the Solway to the Lake District are wonderful from this clifftop path. With binoculars at the ready we spotted lots of oystercatchers, gulls, cormorants and a seal!

A lovely walk with lovely people on a calm October weekend - you can't ask for more than that.

enjoying the view

This illustration is from a photo I took of two oyster catchers a few years ago whilst waiting for a ferry on the west coast. They hung around for ages but eventually took off - I had started to wonder if they were waiting for the ferry too.

Illustrations for poetry booklet

Wigtown Book Festival saw the launch of this little booklet that I was commissioned to illustrate.

Cally Voices is a community project led by writer and poet Liz Niven. Throughout the year a number of guided walks were led by Liz to raise awareness of the Temple project in Cally Woods - Gatehouse of Fleet. During the walk participants were encouraged to write a poem inspired by their visit. This booklet is a culmination of both Liz's poems and participants' poems from the walks.

Harbour Nights

I just can't get enough of coastal scenes. This piece did start off as an illustration of Kirkcudbright Harbour which, as I worked on it morphed into a more generic harbour scene.  Fine by me.

mmm, wonder where it is?

From the Sketchbook #2

This is Little Ross, a small island near Kirkcudbright. The gorgeous view you get on a short walk from the town heading out towards Dundrennan.

Great view and a seat what more could you want!

Prints now for sale

Here are just three of a selection of my prints now available to buy at Gracefields Arts Centre in Dumfries! So if you're passing by call in and check them out!

wild goats

I briefly headed along to the Wild Goat Park in the Galloway Forest Park this morning for some 'on location' sketching. I arrived just as the goats were having their breakfast and so got great views of them close to the car park. Such great characters.  

Love is in the air

Valentine Day card design.

rock climbing master

Going through my old holiday photos I came across pictures I had taken of wild goats we spotted whilst walking in Majorca a few years ago. The ledges on the rock face they were traversing to get food were tiny - it was very impressive to watch. We watched them skilfully move across the rocks for ages.

The Flanks of Skiddaw

I have worked this up from I sketch I made on a visit to the Lake District last year. This is how I imagine the same scene might look at this time of the year.

Winter Fox

My first illustration in 2015. A lovely way to spend the morning and start off the new year.

Herbs and Spices

more notecards

I decided to revisit an earlier brief, '50 things' set back at the start of this years semester. I wanted to create a kitchen theme pattern design from my sketches to turn into notecards.

self initiated project

A wee peak at something I'm working on in my spare time.

Notecards

I have been really enjoying creating patterns recently and have designed some notecards using some of my most recent pattern designs.

Christmas

It's heading to that time of the year again....

Fox

Personal project - woodland theme continues

50 things

Here are some tea towels I have designed from the latest uni brief focussing on observational drawing.