My Celtic Ivy art - plus I explore the ivy symbolism, stories, myth, meaning and folklore that's shaped the way we understand ivy today...

And climbing walls and buildings where, far from common misconceptions, it actually seems to prove beneficial keeping buildings dry and warm in the winter and cool in the summer – and it’s certainly seen as very lucky to have ivy covering your home!

As 2020 is proving to be an 'unprecedented' year (as everyone keeps saying), my artworks are going to be included in Goole Museum's very first Digital Open Art Exhibition which takes place from 1st September to 31st December 2020.

You can be part of this, too, by visiting the gallery in person (if you choose) to view the digital part of the exhibition on a slideshow within the gallery, or you can also see it on the museum's digital gallery page.

You will be able to see these two artworks which I've submitted to the Open Art exhibition, alongside lots more gorgeous artwork from very talented East Yorkshire artists...

Click here to view the Goole Open Art 2020 Digital Exhibition...

Learn how to easily measure drawing angles and proportions to help develop your drawing skills...

My best drawing techniques for beginner drawing and drawing from life - step-by-step guidance - follow along with me as we learn to draw together...

In this earlier blog post, we looked for simple shapes in our drawing to get us started. This is a fantastic drawing technique that you can use when you’re drawing absolutely anything…

But not everything we want to draw is as simple as a single leaf and sometimes we need to use additional techniques to help us draw more complex things.

We’ll start looking at these here…

Have you ever seen artists holding a pen or pencil up at arm’s length when they’re drawing something?

Celtic greyhound knotwork art plus gifts for greyhound lovers, greyhound-design fabrics and loads more…

I, myself, used to own a rescue greyhound and I still consider myself a greyhound lover, so I was keen to create a Celtic artwork and have a go at intertwining knotwork around those lovely long legs and tail. The greyhound is such an elegant dog that perfectly suits the Celtic knotwork style...

My Celtic Blackberry art, also with a Celtic Tree Calendar version, with prints, gifts & products available - alongside a look at bramble meaning, myth, and symbolism...

A new collection of my phonecase designs has just landed at DeinDesign - with phonecases and skins for ALL makes and model of phones - even the not-so-popular ones and even the older ones (like mine)!

I'm very proud to have a new range of designs out with this company, DeinDesign/DesignSkins - who I always use for my own phone as I don't have one of the newest fancy phones, so I always, otherwise, find it difficult to find one of my own phonecase designs to fit my phone - but at DeinDesign they seem to have every phone model that's ever been made and they'll print it just for you!
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Why keep an art sketchbook?

Whether you’re feeling inspired to draw, draw, draw… or have been told to start a sketchbook habit, here we take a look at some reasons why you might keep a sketchbook and think about what format that sketchbook might take…

Your sketchbook is there to serve you so use it in the way that’s most useful for you personally!

How do you feel about the idea of keeping a sketchbook?

Is it something you’re keen to get started doing? Or do you feel you ‘should’ keep an art sketchbook?

Perhaps you searched online for sketchbook ideas and now feel intimidated by the perfectly-coiffured sketchbook pages gracing Instagram and Pinterest?

Yep! Me too!

My Celtic Bear art plus a dive into bear meaning and symbolism, now and through the ages...

The bear is a powerful symbol for us - even today, when bears have not been living wild in Britain for hundreds of years…

And indeed, bears are generally seen as symbol of strength and power – but the story is more nuanced and interesting than that and bears definitely have a different side to show us, too…

My beautiful Celtic Hazel artwork - part of my Celtic Tree Calendar collection - plus I take a deeper dive into hazel folklore, history, tales and hazel meaning...

Exploring self-expression in art and creating meaningful drawings…

​​The objective of this particular drawing lesson is to understand that art is expressive and personal…

…and NOT an exercise in technical drawing.

So that you will feel confident that, actually, you ARE an artist.