Thaxted October Exhibition

The exhibition at Thaxted Guildhall with friends was a fun seasonal affair that marked the end of an era for me creatively.  Starting the MA in Children's Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art in September is the biggest opportunity for artistic development I have experienced and can only change my work. 

With this in mind I decided to focus on the subject I began illustrating a long time ago and my all-time favourite theme, to bring together an almost complete collection of my witches and wizards to date in the form of a retrospective.  I completed the circle of thirteen paintings with a few new ones to show the development of my style and the new directions I am going.

Follow my travels through the next two and a half years on my new blog here!

Ashagal and the Moonlit Path

In the early part of 2014 I was delighted to work on the most amazing project. One that took me on a journey far along the moonlit path, through the darkling woods and into a world of music and wild ancient souls...

Check out the wonderful Ashagal on www.ashagal.com

A New Beginning...

It's been a long, long time since I have posted in The Tanglewood while life has continued to whirl by. There has been so much to do and think about that I have often felt overwhelmed by it all and when that happens the only thing I can do is, retreat.

Now that spring has blossomed and summer wended it's way back in to our hearts, I too find myself stretching and raising my face to the sun. So this is a catch up of all my weavings and waiverings over the last year...

In July I attended a week at Cambridge School of Art doing the Children's Book Illustration Summer School. One of the best weeks of my life, without a doubt. I was completely inspired and managed to create a little book...

The summer school made me think seriously again about what I wanted from life...I realised that I needed to attend Life Class...

The end of autumn and build up to Christmas meant the Mayor's Appeal Art Exhibition...

One of my great yearnings has been to study again and after the summer school I decided it was time to go for it. So after filling out the forms and applying, the most important thing was to put together my Portfolio, organise my sketchbooks and even updated my summer school book...

My impending exhibition at the Saffron Walden Exchange Gallery helped my portfolio a great deal as I created new pictures and continued to develop my book idea... Together with the talented Susanne Vowinckel we put on a lively show of very different work that somehow hung together really well...

My interview with Martin Sailsbury was one of the most nerve wracking things I've ever been through. Time was short, I'd brought too much stuff really but managed to show the most important things. Received a bit of criticism but took that on the chin (he was right of course) and then went into bit of a meltdown for two weeks waiting for the result...

This years' Open Studios was very different from my previous ones. I decided to exhibit in Saffron Walden over just one weekend for a change, in the Almshouse Chapel. A beautiful light and airy space, I was able to invite two friends to share it with me ~ Amanda Sheldrake and Susanne Vowinckel...

...to my amazement I got in! So I am starting in September on the MA in Children's Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art, more excited than I can express. I will try and document my progress as I go.

Secret Garden

One of my favourite childhood stories is 'The Secret Garden' by Frances Hodgson Burnett. As many of you will remember, it tells the story of an orphaned girl who, together with her guardian's ill son, find and tend a garden hidden behind a locked door.

I love the idea of those first moments of discovery, with the child peering through the keyhole seeing a miniature, keyhole-shaped garden in need of a little care... 

My first painting ~ Discovery ~ is the neglected and overgrown garden as first discovered, beautiful in it's own way but sorrowful too...

Thereby follows the changes wrought by the children throughout the seasons as it flourishes...

 Spring...

 Summer...

 Autumn...

...and ending with a magical winter.


Each painting or print is mounted within a keyhole shaped window.

The Little Witch Down Memory Lane

Cards Available on Etsy!

Pack of 5 cards available

I now have a selection of cards available singly and in packs in my Etsy shop. They are brightly coloured and can be framed as a gift. Perfect for children and not so grown-up grown ups! 

Remember that a Witch is for Life, not just Hallowe'en!

The Birth of a Painting - Part II

Untangling the Tangle

Continued from Part I. Once the composition is transferred onto the watercolour paper, I will usually draw the image out in pencil and develop it further then paint and finally use a pen.  However with this painting, after drawing out the figure more clearly and working out the top middle section, I dived straight into the pen-work...mainly because the briars were so entwined that I needed to make sure I had got them right... I had to be careful not to go over bits that were supposed to go under the figure...and I wanted them to go over and under and around each other like celtic knot work...

The Tangle Revealed

...the next bit was great fun and reminded me of colouring in as a child... First I painted the roses, hips, buds and leaves, to remind me that this is where the fresh growth is. I wanted to paint the briars leading up to those bits a lighter green to show they are still alive... I painted up from the roots, as if the paint was the sap is rising...

The Sap is Rising

...eventually the image grew and entwined around the girl...

Entwined and Entwirled

I decided to leave the girl in pencil as much as possible to show her softness against the sharp briars, the background grew into a landscape of a dream and her hair became birds flying free as she longs to be...

Green Girl Dreaming

I painted the girls dress grass green with large daisies emblazoned upon it to represent her life force and innocence. Her hair grows lush and long and entwirls with the briars in strawberry blonde strands....

Finally the landscape and birds are picked out with a light wash of paint around the edges to enhance the hills and trees.

In a Tangle (Briar Rose) by Sarah Turpin