In the woods and by the sea

This summer I spent an incredible 3 months working on organic farms, hitchhiking, camping and bumbling around north Quebec and the Canadian Maritimes.
Lots of time in the woods, sleeping to the sound of coyotes howling, and by the windy sea.

One Fine Stay commission

Well, well, well.

It has been a while!
There's plenty more updates to come, but for the meantime here's a recent commission I completed for London / New York company One Fine Stay for their referral program. 
I was asked to illustrate the gifts given to members for referring their friends. I was on a tight deadline and the desired style was classy classy.... which I struggled to keep up with. I like some ore than others... you know how it goes.

Nonetheless, here they are:

PRIZE: chef cooks a dinner party at your house

PRIZE: bouquet of flowers for your house once /week

PRIZE: handymen to fix your house up

PRIZE: trip to NYC

PRIZE: shopping n champers experience

PRIZE: afternoon tea hamper

PRIZE: cleaning service for your home once/week

PRIZE: champagne hamper

What I bought... cont

Here are some more pieces from my sketchbook of 'what I bought.'... though I think 'what I ate' is more suitable, as food seems to be the only thing I buy.

Asparagus. watercolour. ink.

Red onion studies. Watercolour. crayon. ink.

Red onion 2.

Onions - thought they'd make a rather nice fabric / wallpaper design.

Tee design

New T-shirt design - hopefully wont mess up the printing this time...

FRESH OFF THE BLOCK

Well, lookey lookey... just finished some lino block printing.

Just finished my Christmas cards... later than I wanted (had to order art supplies you see)... but look! I'm rather chuffed with this lot. They're metallic, complete with glitter n all!

Friends etc. email me your addresses so I can send you a nice belated letter.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

Getting started...

taa -daaah!

 

Metallic red with glitter

Metallic blue with glitter

The never ending dichotomy...

It was whilst wandering through the woodlands of central Quebec that I found myself thinking about a book called Columbus and Other Cannibals   by Jack Forbes (which was recommended to me by a certain Miss. Percival). The book discusses the 'disease' of violence against our fellow human brothers and sisters as well as our mother, Earth. The never ending dichotomy of nature/culture is something that constantly cropped up when studying Anthropology... indeed, the artificial divide we have created between ourselves as 'civilised' beings and the savage, untamed and 'natural' could be argued to be the very crux of civilization itself.... 

Anyway, mulling this over in my head alongside the anti-civilization arguments of radical environmentalist Derrick Jensen, I started to think about how little difference there was between humans and the world in which we live. We, like so much that we call 'nature' (or more accurately 'natural resources' - to be used and managed) are, when it comes down to it, 100% reliant upon the earth on which we stand, the air which we breathe and the water which drink. Our destruction of this planet is not just the destruction of 'the environment' but it is the cannibalisation of ourselves.

So having come to this conclusion, I looked at a fern and realised that its leaves were a similar shape to my fingers... what a perfect way to illustrate our oneness: 

Line drawing using indian ink

Lino block print with watercolour

Oh Walmart! Oh people!

Cool infographic on the reality of the corporate giant Walmart here, by Frugal Dad.

Nice one.

The Weight of Walmart... See it here