Brighton Open Houses: part 2

The only show I am taking part in May is the at the Claremont Hotel in Hove. It is in waddling distance for me so not too much of an effort to contribute some of my prints.

The Claremont is a 5 star hotel on Second Avenue and they are a regular venue on the Hove Open House trail. The walls are packed full of a broad variety of prints and photography - all for sale with the money going direct to the artists.

It is well worth a visit and makes a very pleasant place to take a rest and maybe get a coffee as you take in a few Open Houses in the area.

http://www.hovearts.co.uk/

http://www.hovearts.co.uk/artists/sallyelford.htm Here you can see some of the prints I have on display at the Claremont. They are also available from my etsy shop.

claremont

claremontimage3

claremontimage6

claremontimage15

Dessert Girl - puddings and illustration

If you check out Dessert Girl’s quirky blog today you’ll see a recipe and images by yours truly. This blog is for those with a sugar craving and provides scrumptious recipes for you to try at home. She also invites creative folk to submit their favourite recipes so when I was kindly invited to join in I also added some images.

Puddings and illustration - a sensory overload!

Dessert-Girl-cheesecake1

Stunning Mid Century Poster Art

Being a fan of art from the 1950 sand 60s, I had seen some of these incredible images before but I hadn’t made a note of the name until now. The vivid designs David Klein produced for TWA posters really represents the visual language of this era and perfectly captures the thrill and novelty of jet air travel at this time. You can read a full biography and many more examples to drool over here. For now I’d like to share just a few of my favourites with you.

I have decided that all proceeds from my etsy sales will now have to go towards purchasing one of these! I think they are all simply beautiful.

DKlein1

DKlein2

DKlein4

DKlein3

DKlein5

Mid Century Modernist blog

Whilst researching references for a recent illustration, I stumbled upon this perfect blog. It summerises all manner of mid century design in architecture, furniture, products and art inspired by this era. A load of goodies to feast your eyes on from Eames, Knoll and Saarinen among others. There are also a few very interesting films on there too - a perfect alternative to facebook for your tea break entertainment!

midcenblogheader

midcenblog1

midcenblog2

midcenblog3

Art Angels

Art Angels have just sent samples of cards featuring a couple of my prints: ‘Satin Bowerbird’ and ‘Magpie’s Treasure’. I first heard of Art Angels when I picked up a set of cards featuring Angie Lewin’s wood and lino cut prints.

They’ve compiled a range called ‘Printmakers’ which focuses on British printmakers and these sell throughout the UK and US in design led shops and galleries. The quality of print is excellent with a subtle embossed finish - I’m really pleased with them and early reports indicate these are already getting a great response from stockists.

Another print ‘Winter Field’ is due to feature on cards later in the year plus a few pattern designs will be making an appearance on giftwrap.

The original silk screen prints of these and others are available at Boxbird, Soma and Castor and Pollux. C & P also stock some of the Jonathan Adler white ceramics you can see in the first pic!

artangels-cards-photo

artangels-cards-photo2

Coming To America

No not that silly ’80s Eddie Murphy flick - my illustration work has been selected by 3×3, The Magazine of Contemporary Illustration to feature in their showcase. They call it a magazine but it’s actually more like a high quality soft back book and it’s out 3 times a year. Distributed mostly throughout the States but if you’re in the UK we have them in Borders and the ‘posher’ book shops.

This is great as I am hoping to get more exposure in the U.S and internationally, so far I’ve kept things pretty local in the South of England but with a spot on illustrationmundo, an Etsy shop in the making and this, I will begin to go global. An American illustration agent would be great too if anyone out there is interested!

3x3

mundo

Packaging Design

When I first started out on the self employed journey, I had some help from the lovely Princes Trust.  They are worth approaching if you are just starting out with your own business and if you fit their criteria, they provide support in the form of a business loan and mentoring to get you launched.

The Prince’s Trust has teamed up with Strathmore Spring Water to launch an exciting design competition for Trust supported businesses. The winning entry will be featured on limited-edition bottles of Strathmore sold in all branches of Starbucks during August.

I’ve submitted my design which I’m quite pleased with but have no idea what happens next - all information has disappeared from their website. Here it is anyway…

strathmore

Art Auction - Saturday 30th May

tooveys-logo2This Saturday Tooveys Auction house in Washington, West Sussex are holding their annual contemporary art auction. I’m joining in the fun this year and have submitted a couple of my most popular screen prints. It all kicks off at 6pm, I’ll be there but I expect I’ll leave the room and cringe as we wait for the bids to come in (or not) on my pieces!

The event is open to anyone to bid and the estimates are starting at around the £100 mark, so you could bag yourself a bargain.

toovey-pics

Latest Press - SOMA-Bristol

Soma - Clifton,Bristol

Soma - Clifton,Bristol

I have been re-stocking the fabulous SOMA gallery and shop in Clifton, Bristol. Fiona there has kindly highlighted my latest prints in her online promotions. A great store to be associated with! Scroll down to have a peek at her other lovely items.camilla-prada1camilla-prada2lucyv-mary-f

New blog - ta daa

Hello everyone. Some of you may recall my previous and very brief attempt at blog keeping last year. I quite enjoyed tending my little plot of cyber-space but I soon realised that with only a hand full of hits to my site per week, it wasn’t really worth the effort and that I should just focus on creating new work .

Since then I’m pleased to say that, thanks to some great coverage across the web plus some higher profile clients, there are definately enough of you watching me so, here we are - blog take 2. Thanks to the clever sausage that is Stephen Elford for his guiding hand whilst setting this up.

I aim to update this as much as possible but it probably won’t be each and every day - just when time allows and/or when I am particularly inspired (usually after the first coffee of the morning)