St Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

March Crow Calendar

It's March already! This year is already flying by. This month is among my favourites, first of all because it's my birthday month, but also because it is the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Which here means slightly warmer weather and plenty of rain. March is the month of storms, the destroyer of winter, and the time of thawing. Spring is heralded by the trumpets of daffodils and the calling of crows.

To celebrate all this I have created this illustration featuring crows, which I always associate with this time of year.

                                           Simply click on the image below to download.

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February Moths Calendar

February can be a dark month here in the northern hemisphere. Perhaps that is why holidays like Candlemas and Valentines Day are so important to bring a bit of light and cheer to help us get through the last of winter.

Here's a new desktop calendar free to download for the month of February!

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January Wolves Calendar

It's a whole new year, and to celebrate I created this desktop wallpaper calendar featuring my Winter Wolves illustration.

January is the month of the wolf, the Saxon term Wulf-monath (meaning "wolf month") and also named for the ancient Roman god Janus, who represents beginnings and endings. He is often depicted with two faces, one looking forward and one looking back. I chose to combine these two elements into this illustration for this the most wintry month of the year.

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Swans

Seven Swans

Swan Song

For me swans have always been strongly associated with fairy tales. Swan princesses, fairy maidens disguised as swans and brothers cursed to live as swans filled the pages of the books I loved growing up. Before I moved to England three years ago I had little opportunity to see swans in the feathered flesh. One of the many things I adore about living here is being able to have fairy tale encounters every day. I can step down a wooded path to a quiet park and spend hours watching and sketching the local swans. These creatures are a perfect mix of beauty and danger, which of course makes them ideal for fairy tales and folklore. 

Sunday Reading

My husband and I are in the midst of house hunting, and while finding the right house can be a bit tricky and time consuming, one benefit of all this driving around the countryside is finding wonderful little bookstores and charity shops full of natural history treasures. If I can find an old book with illustrations of birds or woodland creatures I consider it a successful outing.

Over the weekend I found this little gem about the trials and tribulations of John James Audubon and his struggle to get his beautiful paintings of birds published. He's a bit of a romantic and controversial subject (he shot many birds in order to study them for his work) and though I am very familiar with his art, I don't know much about the man himself.  I look forward to learning more about the stories behind some of the most well known images of birds.

Foxes in Autumn

It's officially the first day of autumn! This is my absolute favourite time of year and I can't wait to break out the cozy sweaters, boots and pumpkin spice scented everything! The signs of autumn are just beginning to show outside the window. The oak leaves are tinged with yellow, squirrels are scrambling to stock their winter stores, and there is just a hint of crisp coolness in the air.

The signs of autumn are also upon my worktable today. Russet apples, brown mushrooms, and berry brambles are finding their way into my illustration work lately, and foxes are taking over. The fox is such a symbol of this season with its red-orange coat flashing between the golds and browns of the hedges and its haunting call echoing through the trees at night.