New card designs

Just a reminder that I'll be at the Auckland Art and Craft Fair tomorrow (11-3, Aotea centre), I'll be debuting these two new card designs. Merry Krampus everyone!!

Extra awesome

The lovely Ellie behind Extra Curricular dropped off some copies of the issue I did the cover for, there's also an interview with me inside and pictures of my unusually-clean-but-still-a-bit-messy studio. Don't try to read it here, go buy yrself a copy!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Well well, I'm delighted to announce that the lovely Ellie May behind the excellent local mag Extra Curricular asked me to to the cover for the summer adventure issue. Such an honour and not only that but there's also an interview with me and some photos of my tidier-than-normal studio. Haven't seen it in print yet but you can nab a copy here http://extracurricularmag.bigcartel.com/ or here http://felt.co.nz/shop/extracurricular or at the Auckland Art and Craft Fair on the 30th of November.

Circles on calendars

Lots going on at the moment, Seed Gallery's Diamonds in the Rough exhibition opens on Thursday night then is up until the 7th of Dec. The same deal as previous years, a bunch of artists get 10 wooden objects to artify. My set this year is all painted on black paper, it's called Nightlife and features aquatic looking plants/Gelatinous zooplankton. Here's one, photo courtesy of Seed Gallery:

The other thing which is coming up is the Auckland Art and Craft Fair which is on 11-3pm on the 30th of November at Aotea Square. There's an interview with me on their blog here.

Sunday painters

A quick sketch this morning of some lovely poppies which have sprung up in the garden. 

Reviewed

My Shitty Jokes zine got a glowing review, read it here: http://newzealandzinereview.org.nz/

This is their photo, credit where credit's due..

Art n crafts

I'm having a stall at the next Auckland Art and Craft Fair, better get busy making stuff to sell!

Well it's been a little while, I've been busy working on my diamonds for Seed Gallery's 'Diamonds In The Rough' Christmas exhibition, same deal as previous years, 10 identical wooden objects. This years shape was diamonds. I dropped them off yesterday but forgot to take photos of them, whoops! Anyway here's the link to the exhibition.

And here's a little sketch from last night. I get impatient at pencil sketching so don't do it at all sometimes. But them I end up with girls with one arm waaay longer than the other. Oh well. 

Her feline friend is modeled on my own.

Sorry we are out of space, filled up with plants

These are some of the paintings I'll be showing at the 'Sorry we are out of space' exhibition which is part of the Hamilton Fringe Festival. I've been getting pretty into painting plants recently, I'm interested in their physical forms, how you choose a pattern to follow, each one has it's own set of rules and I've also been thinking a lot about what is it that they contribute to a room, why is it appealing to keep plants indoors and where does the balance lie between it being pleasant to have some greenery around and it seeming like the wilderness is invading your house.

I've also been really enjoying using limited palettes (again), working more like a printmaker layering flat colour than a painter mixing colours to create tones, and using different papers, gouache is so opaque it can handle dark papers nooooo trouble.

Fringe benefits

Hamiltonians! I have some paintings in this exhibition which is taking over the foyer of the Meteor for the Fringe Festival. Unfortunately I can't make it down there for the opening because it's on my birthday...but y'all should go!  

Lil' still life

Mucking about with gouache last night, this was an unplanned sketch. Sometimes it's nice to just see what come out. My brushes are getting so ragged from all the drybrushing I've been doing, but it gives it some brushy nice texture.

Blue dude

A little detail from something I'm working on

Banana lounger

Ile Deezer

Another illustration for to lovely folks at Presence, I hadn't done a map in aaages, it was fun getting back into it, and putting in some puns. You can read the article over here.

Sketchin

Trying out a different paper stock, it's very thick and textured. Wish I could remember it's name though!

Pink + ink

Sketching some things in my studio..

Still life with lemons

We have a large, bountiful lemon tree at our flat, keeping us well stocked for juicy lemons this winter. More limited palette gouache work.

The wonder wares - purchases and trades from the Auckland Zinefest

I didn't even get a proper look around, being tied to my table but there was tons of great stuff at this years Zinefest, here's a few treasures I gleaned.

The ridiculously talented Buzzferkchurnt selling his hand coloured prints at crazy low prices

And again

On the left: Seeing With Closed Eyes by Liam Bowen

On the Right: Geo by Angeline Chirnside

Liam draws funny comics of his weird dreams

Angeline's Geo is full of fascinating conversations on geodesic domes, NZ history, communist architecture, laughter crystals and fan fiction.

Health, Wealth and Happiness, "a found-art nightmare catalogue"

Highly saturated de and re-assembled ephemera

New surprises on each page

A wonder to behold

I am slowly amassing a collection of 'Let Me Be Franks'

They are soo addictive

AKL Zinefest 2013 - wares

Saturday the 27th of July was the Auckland zinefest held in the beautiful, crowded St. Kevin's arcade. I was next to the talented Laing sisters, Sarah and Melissa. 

I took this photo from the design assembly site, more photos of the day over there. 

My sister was also represented on my table, I illustrated a story she wrote, which tied with Stop Being A Pud for best literary zine, wa-hoo! 

I also designed the layout, love the combination of French blue and white.

Shorty remains unimpressed by my efforts.

Another of my zines, this one bursting with crude puns. It was my top selling zine but that might have been because it came with a FREE 'cool shit' sticker.

You ain't nothing but a hot dog - more terrible jokes

And lastly I finally illustrated my Mr. Celery poem, which is about 5 years old now.

 I always get this line in my head when I eat celery: 

'String and water in a tube/is not such sustaining food'