Illustration Friday - Ripple

My Illustration Friday submission this week which hopefully will help to raise some money for the big clean-up operation required to help the wild animals affected by the Gulf oil spill. It's an original watercolour painting of a pair of gannets on a black background. I love gannets - they're stunning birds and I chose the subject because I believe a northern gannet was one of the first birds to be picked up and cleaned after the gulf oil spill.

Have a look at the rest of the artwork on http://ripplesketches.blogspot.com/

These photos are from my cousin Jo who lives in Camas in Washington. The children are from the special needs class where she works, and they've got a thing about turtles! They put on a play inspired by Bear and Turtle and the Great Lake Race by Andrew Fusek Peters, which I illustrated. I love the hats!

Blue Door Commission

I've just finished a commission to paint a doorway for my friend Mary - I think she likes it, but it's so long since I've done a commission I must admit I was nervous! It's quite a big canvas, so it made a lovely change from book illustration. I thought the door was in Ireland but it's actually in Monmouth, in Wales.

One for Father's Day

We had a swarm of bees in the garden on Sunday, which is lucky because we just happen to be beekeepers! So Jeff cut the branch with the swarm on it and put it in front of an empty hive. The bees obligingly walked up the ramp and set up home - so cute! As a result Jeff has a big swollen hand where he got stung. In Northern Ireland we would have said "it swelled up like a bap".

On the plus side, we have a nice big bowl of honey in the kitchen which he collected from our other bees to remind us of why we like to keep them!

The swarm looked like one of the illustrations I did for 'Me and My Dad' by Alison Ritchie.

And I thought I might as well plug the book as a great Father's Day gift while I'm at it!

Illustration Friday - 'Trail'

One of my illustrations from 'The Magical Snowman' by Catherine Walters

Little Rabbit stopped and looked around. He wasn't sure which way he had come.The swirling snow made everything look strange.

I'm probably going to be sacked from Illustration Friday because it took me three goes to get this link to work - but it's my first go!

Flax fields

My daily walk with the dogs is getting very pretty now that there's flax flowering in the fields! I couldn't resist bringing my camera - and there's always a chance that I can find the time to create some new paintings!

My Pewter Plate Award!

My Highlights Pewter Plate award has arrived and Dorry is very impressed!