Where have I been? Looking back through my blog, the last time I posted was in April this year. That’s seven months ago!

The only excuse I have is that a busy schedule of work, looking after our almost three year old son and completing illustration commissions has meant I’ve been neglecting my blog, and for that, I’m sorry! The longer I’ve left it, the harder it is to pick up where I left off. So I’ve taken the leap and to get back into it I’ll just give you a whistle-stop tour of what I’ve been working on since my last post.

Fasten your seatbelt (or grab a cuppa), there’s a lot to get through!

One of my first projects this year was an illustrated map of the Rideau Canal in Canada for Le Boat, a company which hires out self-drive boats on waterways around the world.

The finished piece is a fold out map which is included in their Rideau Canal guide. The map is fairly accurate in terms of scale, but I widened the river to accommodate the different attractions en route.

I’ve previously illustrated the Canal du Midi in France and the River Thames for the same company, but this map was different in that I put it all together digitally. Each element was illustrated and painted by hand, then ‘photoshopped’ into place on the map. This made it easier to make tweaks to positioning, and even remove and add elements at the request of the client.

Since I finished the map, I’ve been working on quite a few house portrait commissions which came about when I posted a few paintings I did for fun on Instagram.

I’ve worked on quite a few now, and have several more to paint as Christmas commissions.

I’ve also done a handful of paintings for holidaycottages.co.uk.

I’ve been working on some more realistic style watercolours to add to my portfolio and for an exhibition with my local art group which was held in May. I arranged the mushrooms below in a frame which is now hanging on the wall in our lounge!

I painted the poppy below for the SAA’s paint a poppy challenge for a special exhibition for the centenary celebrations. I enjoyed building up the layers and establishing the contrast between the dark background and paper-thin poppy.

This rainy Japanese street scene was painted for my art group’s exhibition. I was so pleased with this one that it’s also ended up on our wall! If you would be interested in a print, please let me know as I’m going to look into getting some professionally printed.

Finally I’ve been working on various art journals as a way of relaxing and enjoying the little free time I have!

If you’d like to keep up to date with what I’m up to, you can follow my social media accounts:

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Instagram

YouTube (I only have a couple of videos at the moment, but hope to upload more at some point!)