The 2024 Berwick Food & Beer Festival is fast approaching (16th - 18th August) and I’m going to be attending. Whilst I’ve gone every year since we moved to Berwick and last year I even volunteered at the event, this year I’m actually going to be a stall-holder in the producers’ market!

I wanted to take a selection of my art prints and gifts that are inspired by Northumberland, but also to create some more food-based designs specifically for the occasion. I’ve therefore been beavering away on the following collections, which I’ll be launching at the event on 17th August and will then have available on my website and Folksy shop from w/c 19th August

My new British Songbird collection features some well-known garden favourites (blackbird, blue tit, robin, song thrush) as well as others that we might only see at certain times of year, or when out-and-about in different habitats.

I’ve had my Folksy shop since July 2023 and thought it would be interesting to share a bit about why I use this platform for selling my range of eco-friendly art prints and gifts.

I tend to leave out projects that I'm working on, as if I tidy things away they often end up never being finished! However, the sheer volume of competing projects I've reached over the last month definitely requires a bit of a Spring Clean!

I’ve been participating in the #birbruary challenge hosted by Amanda Pearson of Winging It Drawing to draw a songbird found in the British Isles every day throughout the month of February, in support of the charity Songbird Survival.

I started by writing down the phrase that I wanted to letter: “When life gives you lemons, squeeze them on pancakes” and then sketched some rough thumbnails for how I might compose the piece, thinking about the hierarchy, size and style of the lettering I might use and placing this into various shaped blocks…

I’m so excited to finally be able to talk about a project I’ve been working on for the charity Equal Arts to illustrate two singing Christmas cards developed and performed by a group at Grange Lea care home and Birch Grove assisted living in Tyneside.

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 don’t just draw pretty pictures… I offer a range of services, from freelance illustration and graphic design, to custom illustrated maps and even brand and communications consultancy.

Did you know that that infamous breakfast dish - the kipper - is a smoked herring? But why did I choose a herring as the inspiration for my latest artwork?

We all need beautiful things, made with care for people and the planet, and thoughtfully curated

Next to the Berwick-upon-Tweed Railway Station, you’ll find a carved wooden statue of a bear, who is affectionately known as ‘Bari’.

It was this sense of colour that I wanted to capture when I started thinking about developing a series of illustrations that reflected how I saw Berwick. I wanted to create my own iconic set of colour swatches – bold blocks of colour that I could see in the landmarks around me.