Paula Metcalf I

A gorgeous domestic illustration by Paula Metcalf from the book 'Perfect Guest'. Perfect Guest was published in 2017 and tells the story of a house proud dog called Walter and his very accident-prone friend Pansy the squirrel.

Mariachiara Di Giorgio II

An image by Italian illustrator Mariachiara Di Giorgio, I love the strength and determination of the mother's stride, that beam of confident light and strength.

Rafael Lopez

A delicious Kite flying illustration by Rafael Lopez created for the cover of the winter SCBWI catalogue. 

Elise Gravel I

Elise Gravel's mineral creatures, I love these because so rarely do minerals get any attention from illustrators.

Hana Akiyama II

There is much to love about the work of Japanese illustrator Hana Akiyama's portfolio, but there is something especially magical about her trees, that have such personality and are almost human especially the ones above with their double trunk legs.

Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley

Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley (1865 –1931) is renowned for his photographs of snowflakes and alerting people to their unique designs. He also took exquisite photographs of many ice formations in close-up, these beautiful images are his "frost studies".

“Always, right from the beginning it was the snowflakes that fascinated me most,” he said. “The farm folks up in this country dread the winter, but I was supremely happy.”             Wison Snowfake Bentley 

He started trying to capture their beauty in drawings through a microscope, then after many experiments he manages to photograph his first snowflake on January 15, 1885. He went on to establish that no two snowflakes were the same, this captured people's imaginations and his work was widely published in magazines.

"Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated., When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind." Wilson Bentley 1925

However, when Wilson went to publish his first book on snow, he got caught in a blizzard and caught pneumonia of which he died two weeks later.

Brian Wildsmith XI

Two posts for what would have been Brian Wildsmith's 90 birthday. 'Professor Noah’s Spaceship' by Brian Wildsmith published in 1980 but unfortunately horribly relevant today, beautifully illustrated, with the space ship images being very like Kandinsky paintings. 

Brian Wildsmith X

A moose with nesting birds from 'Animal Tricks' by Brian Wildsmith. Published thirty years ago in 1980. Today Brian Wildsmith would have been 90 years old and to celebrate their father's wonderful work his family has been working tirelessly for three years putting together a new website which is launching today.

Shane Drinkwater V

Shane Drinkwater's latest collages remind me of cycles of the moon and how prominent they are in the winter when light here is so scarce.

Tara Cyanel

Tara Cyanel's journey of life. Tara's work has a folkloric quality that transcends cultures, she uses a variety of materials including woodcut and her works have a strong storyline.

Long weekend

I'm not really away, but I need time to find cool stuff to share and I have many deadlines just now, so I am going to take a few days.

Have a great weekend.

Vilhelms Purvitis

Vilhelms Purvitis 1872-1945 was a Latvian landscape painter who when he was 18 he started studying at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, Russia graduating in 1897 with a grand gold medal. Vilhems then exhibited and traveled across Europe to much acclaim. In 1902 he went to Norway to paint snow scenes which became his passion.

Lisa Berkshire I

I was lucky enough to receive a Lisa Berkshire print this Christmas and I love her prints, after yesterday's beachcombing, here is her 'I love the Sea' print.

Midden

"A 'midden' (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, botanical material, mollusc shells, sherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human occupation."

I collect artifacts from a midden on the North of the Forth, North of Edinburgh, Scotland. I have always gathered as I walked, and now as I walk my new dog daily, the collection is large and growing.
It is the ceramics that I gather mainly and some bits of glass and I like to think of the lives that these objects were part of, right from the person who made it, painted it to the person that chose it, used it and eventually broke it.  I imagine the medicines in the medicine bottles and the people they treated, cured or failed. The teapots and the conversations they overheard . . .

I am no mosaic artist and the last time I gathered a sizable collection I gave them to the local college who incorporated them in a mural at the hospital.

This time I thought I would like to share these little scraps of lives lived, to creatives, writers poets, playwrights, artists, and musicians to set their creative minds to and to see what happens.

So if you would like to be part of this creative endeavor, please email me or message me via Instagram, Twitter or Facebook and I will send you five pieces of 'treasure'.

A little bit of sleuthing and I found the origin of this piece (on the left) one of James M Tod's Ginger beer bottles and it is Seafield Tower, Kirkcaldy that is depicted, wonderful!