print okushon

in light of recent and tragic events in japan, i'm really happy to be a part of print okushon, an auction of artist's donated prints organised by ciara phelan, where all proceeds raised go towards the red cross in japan.

i donated the above print, which some of you might remember. my fox gocco print has been sold out for over a year, but i put the print that i'd kept for myself up for bidding. you can put an offer on mine here (three days to go!) or peruse the work of others up for grabs; there's a jaw-dropping selection available, lots that i'd be happy to give some wall space to (but i keep getting outbid - good for raising funds!)

new books

i'm one of those people who saves for a rainy day. i'm no scrooge, but i'm definitely not frivolous. one thing that can always nudge me into loosening my pursestrings, however, is beautiful artist's books. above are a selection that i've added to my bookshelf recently. if you're looking for some new things to pour over, i'd recommend any one of these.

clockwise from top left: pebble island by jon mcnaught (£10 from nobrow press) / strom by nigel peake (£12 from nigel's online shop) / onwards by kaye blegvad (purchased from kaye's online shop) / temporama by clayton jr (birthday gift from boyfriend, available from nobrow) / rain day by hannah waldron (£15 from duke press, also came with a beautiful risograph print by hannah) / toska by lizzy stewart (£6.50 from lizzy's online shop)

ten fingers issue #2

back in may last year, helen entwisle (aka memo aka screen-printer extraordinaire) compiled ten fingers issue #1, a collection of illustrations based on contributer's hometowns. now she's gone & done it again; ten fingers issue #2, again hand-bound & hand-printed, contains a series of prints/postcards depicting childhood memories.

alongside jay cover, will bryant, mia chrisopher, anthony zinonos, lesley barnes, gemma correll & helen, you'll find a drawing by me illustrating my three childhood imaginary dogs. their names escape me now but i do remember their breeds: an australian shepard dog, an italian greyhound & a chihuahua (dog breeds are my secret skill).

i have a few copies up for sale over in my etsy shop. this is definitely a good 'un to add to your zine collection.

a year in prints

i know there have been a lot of calendar round-ups on blogs recently, so here's another to add to the mix. two friends of mine, hilary grant & nikki mcwilliams, organised a little project called a year in prints. twelve artists created an edition of fifty prints for their designated month to make fifty calendars (i'm january - you may recognise a certain bear). find out more about the artists here, & you can pick one up here. at £24, that's a measly two quid per screen-print. bargain.

cool things girls make

some busy weeks lately - a few days off so my boyfriend & i could have some mini-adventures to celebrate five years together, plus squeezing in doing lots of little bits of work around normal day-to-day things. for now, i thought i'd show you some ace things i've been liking, made by some talented ladies. above, a new addition to our little flat. at first, my boyfriend thought i was putting up festive decorations early, but this particular item will be staying up year round - joie de vivre from banter banner, run by angela deane.

found kaye blegvad's website a few weeks ago, instantly hooked. quite a macabre (sometimes tongue in cheek) series of works, a nice change. i snapped up a copy of her 'onwards' book/zine, about an army of girls who go to war. heck yes.

you may already be aware of verity keniger's work, but you might not yet have seen her new (& utterly incredible) thirty-four layer screen-print, congeries. i shall never weep with frustration at making a three colour print again (though screen-printing hasn't brought me to tears for a few years, fortunately).

i'm largely a pens/pencils/print kind of girl, but i love danna ray's paintings. one of my particular favourites is the above piece, campfire. if i were to find a print of this under the tree this year, i'd be one happy bunny.

workspace

i picked up my copy of issue 6 uppercase magazine from the post office today. managed to not rip open the envelope until i got back to work, where i pulled it out then shamelessly flipped to page 45 where my piece i submitted for their open call took up almost a whole page. so pleased.

the call was for illustrations of your workspace. i treated my piece as an in-depth sketch, not getting too precious, trying to include all the random bits on my desk & not tidy up or slip in interesting objects that aren't usually there. at first i wasn't going to fill in the postcards on my wall the way i did. originally i was going to make them less recognisable, so you perhaps couldn't tell who's work it was, but this turned out to be harder than i imagined (especially when the postcard involved large text). anyway, i thought i might use this post to show you who resides at eye-level on my wall. it's a selection of postcards by artists either picked up at shows or sent with packages, plus two photos sent by photographers. i hope people take their being there & appearing in this piece as a compliment. from left to right:

top: anthony zinonos, lucy bridger, anke weckmann, ashley anna brown, jez burrows, gavin mcdougall
bottom: thereza rowe, lizzy stewart, supermundane for anorak, old swiss postcard from a friend, john dilnot, anthony burrill, nigel peake, robert maple, david galletly

weekend away

feeling good after a long weekend away. spent time napping & sleeping accompanied by the sound of the tide, on beaches, drinking beer & not worrying about how i've barely done any work lately & how much i need to tidy. have given up on a book i was struggling to get into for months & have started reading something new. making pacts with myself to spend less time procrastinating online. funny how just a few days away from routine can make everything feel better.

few little things:
- this illustration by jack hudson is seriously smashing, it's fun to momentarily get lost in a piece of work.
- these hand-drawn badges by ruefive are close to destroying my much needed buy-less-things mentality.
- if you didn't manage to catch the first edition of lizzy stewart's wolfdream gocco print then have no fear, the second edition is just as beautiful.

pikapackage

just a quick post: i picked up my very own pikaland pikapackage from the post office last week. there is something about knowing you're getting post, but not knowing exactly what it's going to be, that adds a little something to waiting for mail. seeing as there were so many ace artists taking part in this pikapackage, there was no doubt that i was going to like what was inside. i was gifted a print by katie green, a print by lucy davidson, an original drawing by prettylittlethieves and some badges by amy blackwell. good haul!

want your own pikapackage? you can buy one here.

nice to look at

i'm avoiding doing some work by posting some amazing work by various & excellent people.

if you're in edinburgh anytime soon i suggest you visit chris bettig's exhibition, 'all i heard was the echo in the light', currently up at analogue books. i was sorry to miss the opening but had the pleasure of meeting him the next day. visit if you can.

lizzy stewart has some smashing new work up over on her flickr. so good, very much enjoying the literary theme of recent pieces.

i love ray fenwick's comics & narratives. the above is an article about converting old soap into new bars that are distributed for free where needed.

ana montiel's patterns are beautiful. such calming colours & compositions. i also love that her website background changes colour depending on which page you're on.

very much liking jack hudson's work. the poster he did for group exhibition he was a part of at here gallery in bristol is a favourite for sure.

ten fingers issue #1

you might know it, but i like zines. i'm sure you like zines too. hell, i'm pretty sure most people like zines, some just don't know it yet. so when helen of memo asked me a little while back if i'd be interested in taking part in a new zine venture she was embarking on, of course i said yes.

after a lot of amazing organising & screen-printing on helen's part, & with a little help from a bunch of ace artists (& me), ten fingers issue #1 was born. hand-bound & screen-printed in three colours with contributions from eight people, each page can be used as a print or postcard, or you can do what i'm doing & keep it all in one piece. there's only 100 copies in total, & i have four of them up for sale.

before i list them over on etsy, i'm giving readers a chance to snap one up. if you'd like to purchase one, shoot an e-mail over to mail-at-hellojenuine-dot-com, & we can sort out paypal payment (£6.95 + £1.55 (worldwide) or £1.05 (uk) p&p) from there. if you're too late to claim, then don't worry - i'll let you know how you can get yours hands on a copy. as an added little incentive, i'm going to throw in a little something extra that i'll be adding to my etsy shop in the next couple of weeks. hooray for free things!

UPDATE: my four copies have been claimed! will keep you updated as to where else you can get them.

lake como

how much do i want to buy 'lake como' by paddy malloy? the answer is very much. another one for the wish list!

sweet things

sanna annukka has just designed a line of cards/wrapping paper etc for nineteen seventy three. i love the geometric patterns & the cards that feature various dwellings. they'd look super lovely framed.

i recently bought a timberline pendleton wool purse from welcome home, can't wait to get it in the post. the colours & materials used look ace. the one i bought is slightly different, but there's a few more up for grabs over on welcome home's store.

one of my favourite necklaces is from wildcatters on etsy. they've recently listed this lovely little thing, & i am going to buy it as soon as i have some extra cash.

now that the sun is staying out longer, i'm daydreaming about a pair of shoes that will work for bright days, but will have you covered in case it's not quite as warm as you thought.

long weekend in london

i'm feeling pretty sleepy as i got back late last night after a long weekend in london. i had a brilliant time though, & it was so nice to escape my usual routine. myself & my co-workers got the train down on saturday, & i spent the evening with some old friends, eating fish chips & hanging out. on sunday we went to spitalfields market - i'm kind of glad it was impossible to find a cash machine there, otherwise i'd be the owner of a gorgeous new leather satchel, a beautiful chiffon dress & a much smaller bank balance.

i then went to check in at my hotel before heading off to leicester square to meet the lovely thereza rowe, an illustrator based in london who has a wonderful imagination & makes beautiful work. we spent a couple of hours chatting over hot beverages & exploring bookshops. just a short visit but it was great to meet her, i've borrowed the above image from our meeting (where you can see the prettiest little zine that she kindly gave me, plus my new fox friend) & you can see some more images over on her blog.

monday was spent with work friends, mostly on our feet exploring some galleries. my favourite show was one i'd been looking forward to for a few weeks, céleste boursier-mougenot's commision for the curve at the barbican, which you can see above (not my image). in layman's terms, it was a huge room full of sweet & fearless little zebra finches inadvertently playing guitar! you can see a clip here.

back to reality now, but not for long; this time next week i'll be in canada! hooray for adventures.

jumpers & jamboree preview

here a third of a sneak preview of some of the artists exhibiting/selling at jumpers & jamboree tomorrow night. from top to bottom: filipa oliveira, kieran duncan, jenni mackenzie/frogged, john alan birch & sean mcalister.

you can have a look at the other artists who will feature over on lauren & nikki's blogs. jumpers & jamboree kicks off tomorrow night at 7.30, at kokomo's in dundee. as well as art & craft, there's cake, live music, armchairs, fireplaces (that will be on!), & a raffle with some sweet prizes. excellent combination.

wishlist

birch tree forest print by lisa congdon

jasper chunk necklace by wonderwear

pattern (two) letterpress print by christopher bettig

bicycle ponytail elastic by girlsliketrucks

rainy night print by blanca gómez

lines & arrows cushion cover by bestill

oh etsy, you temptress. these lovely wares are just a small selection of things i'd buy in a heartbeat if i could afford to!

letterbox goodness

i think most people will agree when i say getting post is one of life's simple pleasures. getting a letter from someone through the door, finally receiving the package you've been expecting, or the surprise of one you didn't know about. i've been lucky enough to have something from all three categories this week. above are three zines that have been added to my collection: good to know issue #6 from amy (which came along with some other great little treats), if drawings were photographs, by rob & tom & published by it's nice that, plus nature zine by various people & published by hand of man.

a package that i picked up today was a result of an international art exchange currently making the rounds. started by the lovely flora douville, it's basically a really excellent chain letter where, if all goes as planned, you receive thirty six little works of art from all over. above are a zine & print by erin mcphee, which she sent along with two other prints, so it was a great package to receive! her drawings are really quite lovely, & the zine concept was hilarious: once people find out that erin is an illustrator, they assume her boyfriend is one too. as a result, the zine is a collaboration of her drawings as an illustration student, & his as a history student.

this final package is kind of a mystery! which is pretty cool. all i know is that my letter is from canada, that the person may have taken three of these photos & found the rest, & that they associate where i live with a certain film starring paul hogan. i think it's an international art exchange offering, but i've yet to find out for sure.

along with all this great stuff, i've taken part in susie ghahremani's (of boygirlparty fame) pen pal party. mail is the best. i hope you're all getting equally awesome things arriving on your doormat.

sunday roast

after only a short stint of a few months, this is to be my last sunday roast! there are new ventures on the horizon, & i'm going to put more energy into posting the work of other artists on other blogs. enjoy these last three!

i was introduced to the whimsical world of apak after buying a zine by them a little while ago. lots of pastel shades, candy-coloured landscapes & tiny adventures.

i remember finding acorn's work on an online community a couple of years ago, then only a week later finding his work on sale in edinburgh. it seems he's always on the move, & his amazing drawings reflect his lifestyle.

i couldn't resist finishing up with this pair, especially because the little one on the left belongs to me! these are a couple of ashley anna brown's fern animals, some unbeliveably beautiful creations. as well as her crafted animals, she has some really lovely drawings & paintings.

sunday roast

mia christopher's little paintings are lovely. have a peek at her paintings, prints & sketches.

all of the things amy borrell makes are quite super. you'll know what i mean.

i found eleanor wood's work via sharesomecandy, via will bryant. i wish her website was up & running, so that we could see more! the work that she does have online is ace though. certainly quite dreamlike, i love the shapes she's put together.

sunday roast

william edmonds is one quarter of nous vous, & i like nous vous, but i'm just focusing on william edmonds here. will's work has a perfect combination of colour, greys, & white space. i love his recent illustrations that appeared in nous vous' 'heavy bones' show, which seem to focus on rituals & symbols of sorts. good stuff.

mr ian turner is brilliant. i love his work, the line & colours & subjects. it makes me happy whenever he makes new things.

i found these awesome ceramic screen-prints by alanna scott. i really like the pattern that continuously appears in her work, & the different things she applies her illustrations to: windows, jam jars, cork, textiles. awesome.