Heather Ritchie

Still making Christmas cards. Time is fairly whizzing along now. We are in the middle of November already. I am sure November only started last week...I could be wrong but that is what it feels like. We have had lots of rain and gales lately and I am having to clear out the wet birdfood and dry the table every couple of days. After all what self respecting bird would want porridge?

I enjoyed drawing the deer in last week's post so I thought I would do a few more. To simplify things I have used the same image as one of the deer last week. I tried lots of variations of different colours and shades but I thought this one worked the best.

I also thought I would do a white background to see which I preferred. I like them both.

Matilda and Ruby

My featured artist this week is a very lovely lady and friend called Heather Ritchie. We first met years ago when staying at her B&B in Reeth, North Yorks. We had stayed the year before and Heather was away but her husband knew we were interested in arts and crafts and let us have a peek into her fascinating studio. We were inspired by all the wonderfully coloured rugs she had created just from strips of wool fabric. You can view more of her rugs here.

Heather is a very well known and respected rug maker and teacher and travels all over the world holding workshops and displaying and selling her rugs. She even made a lovely rug inspired by one of my paintings. The photos below cannot show the tiny details within the very large rugs and the wonderful shades of wool she uses which she dyes herself. She uses her local landscapes of Yorkshire and her daily life and memories to create the rugs. My brother's partner Lesley is in the process of writing a book about Heather's life in rugs which is to be published next year. Can't wait for that.

She has also started a not-for-profit organisation called Rug Aid which is dedicated to teaching blind people in The Gambia to create their own rag rugs and sell them to provide living funds. On the 21 November the organisation is holding a Rug Rave in which groups or single people can participate to either make their own rugs or raise money in other ways for the organisation. You can read about that on the website too.

Heather's Studio in Reeth

Guiding Light rug

Bearing Gifts rug showing Heather carrying her sheep

The Ha'penny Ferry Rug

Rug of Fleet, Heather's Dog

Christmas Eve Rug

These two lovely delicate etchings below are by printmaker Flora McLachlan. The images are very magical and fairytale-like and totally mysterious. I love her work. You can see more of it a quite a few places on the Internet including Art of Illustration, (you will have to go to the bottom of the page and enter Flora's name - sorry, I cannot link to the right page for some reason, but there are three pages to look at, here at Sanders of Oxford, and here at Artweeks Gallery.

The Flowering

The Wood Pool

So much lovely autumn scenery around at the moment. Our weather has been very changeable lately. We have had lots of mists, a few frosts and now we are being battered by gale force winds and rain which is all coming from the south. I expect there will be far fewer leaves on the trees after this weekend.

If you like your ceramics quirky with wildlife on them you cannot get better than Anna Lambert. Anna is an English ceramacist living in Yorkshire who has work in many galleries and craft shops. She has a huge display of her work here at the Junction Workshop. The cockerel below is actually a tureen and has feathers for a ladle. Intriguing.

Bowl With Field Birds

Oat Jar With Herring Gull

Cockerel Tureen

Have you ever noticed what long eyelashes cows and horses have. Seems a little unfair really when they are not the least bothered about what they look like. You will need to click on the pictures to see them in more detail.

Anne Anderson is a Northern Irish artist and illustrator who now works mostly in printmaking. You can find more examples of Anne's beautiful work here at Artzyard Gallery, here at Seacourt Print workshop and here you will find a site called No Alibis which is producing a limited edition book called "The Book of Lost Things" which she is illustrating.The three lovely images below are her work.

Love Birds Collograph

Prevailing Wind

Scrabo Through The Window

I am always on the lookout for interesting and attractive cards. Christmas cards always appeal to me if they feature partridges in pear trees. These were buy one, get one free, so I got a couple of each design.

I came across a poetry book in a charity shop the other day and it is one I have wanted for a while. It is A Shropshire Lad by AE Housman. This particular copy is very special because it is illustrated by one of my favourite wood engravers - Agnes Miller Parker. Parker was Scottish and quite famous for her book illustrations. Her work is so beautifully elegant and rhythmic with well defined textures.

This is a well-known but very beautiful poem of Housman's. If you click on the image you can see it large enough to read. Housman was an English classical scholar who died in 1936.

Keeping The Kitties Calm

We had Guy Fawkes or Bonfire Night a few days ago when effigies of Guy Fawkes are burned on bonfires, and firework displays take place all over the country. As children we were thrilled with bonfire night and loved saving our money to buy as many fireworks as possible, but these days, sadly, I think it is just a waste of money. The fireworks are very expensive and many of them don't last very long. A large public display is the best way to see the very best fireworks. Personally, I prefer to stay at home and keep the cats company. One of them is deaf but the other finds the noise very distressing, especially the really loud bangers.

I haven't done much in the way of new artwork this week as I am still knee deep in Christmas cards. Making that is, not writing - that will be the next thing.

I thought I would draw some fallow deer instead of red deer for a change. I like their palmate antlers. We have herds of fallow deer in a forest estate a few miles away and it is good fun to drive through the area and see if you can spot the deer. It is a vast area so you are very lucky if you can get a glimpse of them. This picture is called "Sheltered".

This is Mischievous Bird which is the coloured version of the pen and ink drawing I did a while back.

Lindsey Hambleton is a Derbyshire artist who paints beautifully vibrant and colourful images of the English landscape. She builds up her paintings with textures and glazes which give a lovely sense of light. There is lots of gorgeous art on her website here (don't forget to check out the archives). She is also involved in painting scenes from an ancient trackway in Derbyshire called The Derbyshire Portway. Details of which can be found on the website also. I used to live in Derbyshire myself for a short period as a child and the scenery and landscapes of the Peak District are simply wonderful.

Cattle On The Horizon

Ilam Church

If you are like me and love a nice cup of tea, what could be more fun than making it in one of these gorgeous teapots. I think in this day and age of instant teabags in cups and mugs, the poor old teapot is losing ground. It is great to think nostalgically of times past when the teapot sat on its trivet, centre table, with its woolly hat on and the tea left to steep. Yuck...I loathe strong tea. I actually do make tea in a mug and the bag is left in for seconds before being whipped out. I still like the idea of a nice teapot though...! These pots are from Onehappystore here.

Funky Rooster Teapot

Garden Dance Teapot

Frizzle Chicken Teapot

I took a stroll past a local church the other day and took some pictures of my favourite lime trees. At least I think they are limes. They were just starting to turn a beautiful greeny, goldy, brown colour, and looked beautiful against the grey stone of the ancient building. The church dates from 1140 AD but stands on ground which was revered before that date.

I have discovered a new greetings card producer whose work I totally love. Her name is Diane Williams and she goes under the name of "Bird". You can check out her website here. She paints the most gorgeous animal and bird images in gouache and acrylic and also produces greetings cards from them. Below are the three I bought. There are lots more in the series but the shop I bought them from only carried about 6 different designs. If I had owned the shop I would have stocked them all. Diane's paintings are so beautifully delicate, colourful and detailed and each card is signed by her in pencil. The trouble is you would want to keep the cards for yourself instead of sending them to people.

I have used watercolour for years but never really tried gouache. If these are the results you can get I think I will have to start using them.

Geese

Cock Pheasant

Brown Hare

I first came across Grainne (pronounced Grawn-yuh) Morton at the Chelsea Craft Fair which is held in the in the Old Town Hall, King's Road, Chelsea. This was quite a few years ago because I haven't visited for some time now. Her intriguing metallic contemporary jewellery made quite an impact. She uses lots of miniature pieces of found and vintage items to create her beautifully designed work. Go here to find lots more jewellery and other items.

Row Of Flowers Brooch

Blue Horse Collage Brooch

Butterfly Bracelet

The two images below are the work of artist/printmaker Rosemary Farrer. Rosemary admits to being inspired by nature and it shows in the beautiful work on her website here.

First Worm

Snow In Kew Gardens

I love these cushions by Rustique Interiors. Lovely and "folky" tweed with appliqued hearts. They can be found, among other lovely items, here.

Some people will already know of the work of Elaine Pamphilon as she is well-known and represented in the UK's galleries. Her work is beautifully naive and contemporary and full of colour. She paints what she loves which is an excellent reason for painting. Much of her inspiration comes from the lovely coastal area around St. Ives. I love her spontaneous and free style of painting mugs especially, and, of course, her delightful birds. So quirky and whimsical. You can find a huge display of her work on her website here and also at the Bircham Gallery site here.

Blackbird And Berries

Mug And Spoon St. Ives

Molly Talking To The Birds

Sea Song At St. Ives

Bird

A Mixed Bag

I hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween. We had a fairly uneventful trick or treat evening. We only had one tiny little person who was quite unrecognisable as a human being until a little voice piped up "trick or treat". I thought it safest to agree with a treat. Some years we have a flurry of rings on the doorbell and other years we don't have any.

I actually managed to get my linocut finished this week. It has been on the go for quite a while. When I am not sure how to proceed with a particular piece of art I tend to leave it for a while and then go back to it and see if something springs to mind. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. I have pieces of art that I haven't been able to finish for some months. I find, on the whole, it is helpful to go back later and see the piece with fresh eyes.

The Apple Seller

This is a watercolour of a Red Kite that I drew for a friend. I have just added a digital background but the original was on white paper. Getting the feathers right was very tricky but luckily Red Kites have now become very common (whereas once they were virtually wiped out in Britain), and there is lots of reference material around.

This is the linocut I started when I had my little blog "holiday" a few weeks ago. No it didn't take that long to do. I just put it aside because I wasn't sure what to do for the background. I decided a bird on her head would look good. My art motto could be described as "when in doubt draw a bird". I quite like it but I think I may rework the stars. They look a bit clumpy.

Every so often I like to put some of my designs on greetings cards for my and my family's use. This is the latest batch.

I was searching for something in vain the other day among all my art accountrements when I found my long lost charcoal sticks. I used to use them quite a lot years ago but then they disappeared into the great black hole that is my workroom. I can see they were bought years ago because they only cost £1 for a pack of about 20 sticks. Anyway, I decided to give them a whirl and I came up with these two very sultry ladies. I like them for doing spontaneous drawing. Most of my work is very precise and considered and it is good to break the bonds now and again. Mind you I was very dirty after this little effort. Now I remember why I stopped using them - ohh and I didn't find what I was originally searching for either.

This gorgeous graphic illustration by Mikki Rain is one of my favourites. So beautifully designed and great colours.

I found these two great card designs by "Alice Palace" which is a small company producing greetings cards in Evesham in Worcestershire. It is run by two sisters Alice and Liz and the emphasis is very much on fun. The cards have little bits of text here and there and sayings to make people feel happy and lots of magical designs. They have a wonderfully crazy website here and that includes a great blog with lots going on. I shall certainly be visiting again.

Two autumn inspired pieces - the lovely ceramic plate is by Etsy seller SayYourPiece. She produces some great ceramics here...

and a wonderful piece of graphic art by Semen Kapralov entitled Riddle Of Autumn.

I visited a local town's antique shops the other day and one of them features lots of Christmas goodies like Gisela Graham. I love her wonderful figures. There is a large range now and they are all lovely. I couldn't resist this tin Rudoph with his stripey legs and scarf and upright antlers. Here he is with my brass Rudolph that I bought from a charity shop ages ago. They seem to be getting to know one another and I am sure they will soon be firm friends...

and these are two lovely Gisela Graham girls that I bought last year. I have posted this picture before but I thought you wouldn't mind seeing it again as they are so cute.

The trees are all knee deep in their autumn colours now. Lots of beautiful browns, golds, yellows and oranges. These are all views from my locality. I think walking in autumn is the best time of year, perhaps even better than spring. I would be quite content in a world of spring and autumn only. I just wish the gorgeous colours would last longer. The weather forecast tonight is for rain and gales and that will soon bring the leaves off the trees...sigh.

I love quirky - and these pieces by Jenny Southam definitely fit the bill. Jenny creates her ceramics in hand built terracotta which is then glazed. Her characters do delightfully prosaic things like drinking tea in the orchard and painting toe nails. She has a website here with lots of her ceramics on show and a view of her wonderfully busy studio.

Pew Couple With Hearts

Lovers In An Orchard

I found a lovely card whilst out shopping the other day by an artist I am not familiar with. Her name is Lisa Hooper and she is an artist/printmaker who produces beautiful images of wildlife and nature. Her curlews are a delightful linocut and so is the wonderful hare image below. Lisa was born in Hampshire but now lives and works in Dumfries and Galloway - a beautiful area of lowland Scotland which I have visited a number of times. She also creates handmade books, and paper batiks and other forms of printmaking, as well as teaching workshops. I wished I lived up there and could take one of her workshops. You can see what she does on her interesting website here, and there are lots more of her artwork displayed at the Rockcliffe Gallery here.

A Head Of Curlews

Machars Hare

The work below is by very talented artist/printmaker Guiliana Lazzerini. Her work is very varied both in media and subject matter but one theme which is recurring is her love of her homeland in Italy, although she now lives and works in Yorkshire.. The soft, bright colours of her landscapes are beautiful. She also produces monoprints and other monochromatic scenes, and birds feature a great deal in her artwork. You can find her work in lots of galleries if you enter her name into a search engine but her own website can be found here.

Young Dreamer

Birds Watcher

Southern Village

The Messenger

Forest Breeze

Christmas Is coming...Too Soon

Well Halloween is nearly upon us. Be mindful that the veil between this world and the next is at its thinest on the 31st October. In the UK we put the clocks back one hour last night because British Summer Time has ended. The weather doesn't realise this though. Our temps this week are predicted to be around 20C which is amazingly high for this time of year. I am sure it will change soon and we will get some lovely crisp frosty mornings.

This is my third drawing in "The Woman Who Planted Trees" series. I am planning several more in the months ahead as it is a theme I am very much in tune with. It is pen and ink with digital background etc.

I have finally completed my 2009 Christmas card design. I am quite pleased with the composition. At first it looked a little bare and then I had the idea of putting in a row of trees to break up the middle distance. I think it has worked quite well. Now I only have to get all the cards made...! This is a blackbird by the way, for those of you who are not ornithologically minded. I have to put a black border around my images printed onto white otherwise I wouldn't have any idea where to cut.

The beautiful paintings below are by Suzy Fasht who is based in Devon where she works from her garden studio. She is very interested in gardens and nature with lots of gorgeous patterning detail and fantastic colour. Looking at her art is like a glimpse into another world - fabulous. Suzy has a page full of art like this at Axis here.

Meadow With Daisies


Swan With Luggage

Summer Meadow With Ghost Trees

For some time now I have wanted to get a copy of one of the Ernst Haeckel Art Forms books. I chose his Art Forms In Nature. For those not familiar with his work, Ernst Haeckel was a very eminent German biologist and artist who died in 1919. He illustrated a huge number of animal, sea creatures and nature forms in great detail in connection with scientific research. His artwork is so beautifully detailed and patterned that it has also become a valuable resource for the artist. His art provides an endless supply of patterns for those of us seeking inspiration - and that is probably just about every artist and craftsperson. (The possibility for new tree forms is endless.)

I love the distressed and decayed wood look of Margaret Keelan's ceramic sculptures. Her doll-like figurative forms I find quite fascinating. They remind me of childrens' toys discarded and left out in the garden. She admits to being fascinated by the female form and most of her work has been on this theme. There is lots more to see on her website here.

Pet

Woman With Turban

The Girl With The Rabbit

I love any greetings cards with cat pictures on. This beautiful card is by Maren Schaffner who is a German artist. She lives in a farmhouse with her eight cats and two dogs. She obviously has no problems getting kitty models to sit for her. Bottman Design Shop here has lots of her cards. The images are quite small but you can see what a great watercolourist she is. The shop I bought this card from only had a couple of others but there is a large range. (There are two other pages as well).

I thought you might like to see some moody black and white monumental angel photos I have in my archives. All have been photoshopped a bit.

This is my cat Jack who isn't an angel yet, thank goodness, but he is looking very moody and statue like in this shot so I have included him. In fact, he is looking a little bit "witches catish" here. Now I come to think of it, he does tend to disappear around Halloween time...hmmm.

I have long admired the beautiful embroidery of Rebecca Crompton who grew up in the early 1900's and became a teacher of embroidery at the Croydon School of Art. This is a Rebecca Crompton and Elizabeth Thomson booklet which I bought from the Embroiderer' Guild bookstall at the K&S Show a few years ago. It is beautifully illustrated, and unlike my old book below, it is still easy to obtain.

This is the Rebecca Crompton book I was lucky enough to find at the Knitting & Stitching Show a couple of weeks ago. It was from one of my favourite book vendors there called Felicity J Warnes, The Old Bookshop which is actually a B&M shop in Enfield. The stand at the show is very small but they have some lovely old, out of date treasures.

Below are some of the illustrations of her work in the book. It is filled with applique embroideries and lots of her sketches and drawings. The book is dated 1936 and the illustrations are mostly black and white. The embroidery below is called Magic Garden. Interestingly enough I have seen photos of this same embroidery with much paler colours and reversed. I am not sure which is the original orientation.

The images below are all etched by the Scottish artist and printmaker Catherine Grubb. She uses a variety of media to produce her beautifully delicate and detailed work including drawing, painting and etching, and her work is highly collectable. I have illustrated her etchings here, but her pen and ink drawings and paintings are equally lovely. Being a pen and ink artist myself (although nowhere near her ability) I am always interested to see how others handle the medium. Her work is extensively illustrated on The Great Atlantic Gallery site here.

All In Green Went My Love Riding

The Mysterious Garden

The Secret Lane

The Sailing Of The Sea Swallow

The Enchanted Forest

Why Is Everything Such A Rush

I have been busy drawing my design for this year's Christmas card. I have chosen a blackbird on a hawthorn branch looking out over snowy fields and trees. I made a good start on the bird but the wing went completely wrong and I had to start again. Hopefully it will be in a condition to show next week. I am quite behind with it now and having threatened postal strikes over the card sending period isn't helping. Does anyone else think time seems to have speeded up somehow. Crazy, I know, but it does seem that way - or am I just getting slower?

This pen and ink and digital drawing was inspired by my huge butterfly book which I mentioned in a previous post. This is my own design of course, not a real butterfly.

A watercolour of whale sharks done some time ago

This is the completed pen and ink drawing of Georgie. A few people mentioned that they liked the unfinished background but I still have that version in my originals folder

And here is the original Georgie before he became very ill about 2 years ago. As you can see he was a very big, chunky cat with a big personality.

I couldn't resist these greetings cards from paintings by Gerry Plumb. He is an artist and illustrator who moved to Cornwall to paint gorgeously quirky views of the sea and delightful seagulls. You can see some of his artwork here at the Out of the Blue Gallery at Marazion - a place I enjoyed visiting when I holidayed in Cornwall, and some of his cards at The Blank Card Company here.

Times Past

Tree Of Life

I came across these lovely fun linocuts by Cath Deeson the other day. She is a printmaker living in Kent who creates lovely coastal inspired items. She has a website here if you want to take a look. On her biography page she tells us that she has to remind herself to make sure she cuts the text in reverse. That is something I would definitely forget. I like prints with snippets of poetry, sayings, quotes and text of various sorts.

Caravan

I took this picture the last time I visited Cliveden in the autumn. It is one of the tortoises from the tortoise fountain.

Just to add a nice hint of red - some hawthorn berries.

An autumn tunnel in a local lane. This is an older photo but it looks the same every year when the sun shines in the evening.

I first came across Blandine Anderson's ceramics many years ago. She produces stylised and beautifully detailed work of mainly animals and birds, often relating to folk tales and old sayings. Her hares are a particular favourite and I came across two of her hare paintings the other day. They are wonderfully stylised with exaggerated limbs - very iconic. You can see her work in many art and craft galleries online but she has her own website here and you can find more of her ceramics here at Castle Gallery (don't forget to check out the second gallery) and here at Cambridge Contemporary Art.

Blue Hens With Six Eggs

Lepus-Constellation of Hare

Rosy Moon

When I visit my favourite craft fair at Stonor I pass an old farm on the roadside. I have been photographing it for years now and each summer it is slightly more derelict and another piece of masonry will have collapsed. I always feel such a beautiful old set of buildings should have been preserved years ago. There are lots of farm outbuildings apart from the house and barn. In our county there has been lots of renovation and change of use of old barns to homes and I cannot believe this farm has escaped the eyes of a developer for so long. I sometimes stand and ponder as I take the photos of what it would look like if sensitively renovated. It would cost millions probably but I, for one, would like to live there. I would open the barn as a art and craft gallery and use the outbuildings as artists studios and workspaces...oh and live in the farmhouse of course...ahh dreams.

Derelict Barn

Derelict Farmhouse

I have always been a great admirer of the wonderful retro patterns of the 1950s. I picked up this little book at the K&S Show (but found later that I could have obtained it a lot cheaper on Amazon UK). They are selling them very cheaply if you want to take a look here. It is full of blissful retro screenprinted designs. Below are some of my favourites, with the pink and grey bird design being my absolute favourite. I don't know why we are so nostalgic about retro fabric patterns but the ones I have featured in the past are among the most popular google image searches on my blog. The V&A is a fabulous museum but unfortunately, because of the detrimental effect of light on old fibres, most of their old textiles are kept in VERY dark conditions and you would need a torch to be able to see them properly.

V&A Pattern Book - The Fifties

Feathered Friends - Sylvia Chalmers/Elizabeth Eaton Ltd - screenprinted 1953

Perpetua -Lucienne Day/British Celanese Ltd - screenprinted 1953

Macrahanish 1954

Dovedale by John Drummond/Wemyss Weavecraft Ltd - screenprinted 1953

Barbara Pile screenprinted fabric 1950

The tiles below are all created by ceramic artist Iris Milward. I met Iris many years ago at a local craft fair where she was showing off her tiles and explaining how she achieved the look. She was selling greetings cards of the designs in those days and I still have the ones I bought. If you go to her website "Poetry Tiles" here you can see lots of lovely designs and beautiful text. I love the way she wraps the poems around the birds and animals. The tiles are really beautifully designed and I noticed on Jackie Morris's blog the other day that she has some set in her kitchen floor amongst the flagstones.