Old trees always seem eternal, like sentinels to history that stand in the landscape. It can be awe-inspiring to stand beneath the canopy of a tree that is hundreds of years old and consider who planted it and how different the world was then.

Regularly spotting so many coastal birds is the inspiration behind my newest collection, celebrating seven species that can often be seen here. The collection features detailed watercolour and pen illustrations of Arctic Terns, Brent Geese, Cormorants, Eider Duck, Oystercatcher, Purple Sandpiper and Puffins.

I’m still enjoying participating in this challenge and have been lucky with some of the prompts that they featured the types of illustrations/motifs I’m naturally drawn to (like food and things in nature). Quite a few of the illustrations for patterns in this quarter have made their way on to Art Prints and Cards in my shop, which is a great way to get additional benefit from participating in the challenge!

You can tell I'm a fan of the Bloody Cranesbill, as I included it in my logo - I wanted to demonstrate that a lot of my work is inspired by the natural environment of Northumberland and that I tend to draw detailed pen illustrations - and this flower answers that admirably.

’ve written previously about why I decided to participate in the #52patternsayear challenge to create a seamless repeat pattern every week for a year. If you’ve read my first post about the experience, you’ll know that I had a somewhat mixed success rate in terms of being able to create my weekly patterns - but I’m pleased to be able to say that I haven’t missed a week in my second quarter of the challenge!

I decided to commit to the process: 1 seamless pattern (and associated artwork), created from scratch each week and shared with the Instagram challenge hashtag for a whole year!