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!

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...

My Celtic goose art plus goose myth & meaning explored...

The farmyard goose was once widespread across Britain and Ireland – equally so its wild ancestor, the Greylag Goose.

The name is thought to relate to the fact that this grey goose ‘lagged’ behind other geese at migration time and was one of the last to leave for migration. Another suggestion is that it was originally the ‘grey-legged goose’ but since its legs aren’t grey, but orange, I feel this theory is unlikely.

Even in the earliest times, geese were seen as special. In Ancient Egypt, the goose “was the Sun as it emerged from the primeval egg” (Albert Champdour, Le Livre des Morts) – a solar bird-god that laid the golden egg (the sun) each morning.

Pharoahs who identified with the sun were shown with their souls in the shape of a goose. And when a new pharaoh was proclaimed, four wild geese were released to the four corners of the Earth to tell the gods of the new earthly ruler. So the Egyptians saw the goose as a messenger between heaven and earth.

A rare opportunity to purchase one of my beautiful original wildlife drawings - something special to cherish or a personal and thoughtful way to mark a celebration for a loved one...
​

• One-off original drawings (not prints)
• Each comes with a mount and backing board in soft white
• Overall size 10 x 8" (to fit a 10 x 8" frame)
• Artwork size is approximately 8 x 6" (19.5cm x 14cm)
• Cream card with pen/marker drawings

My Celtic Holly art - plus a look at holly folklore, tales, meaning & symbolism...

I'm excited to share my new stock just listed in my Etsy store - some colourful blank greetings cards with my bird, wildlife and nature artworks...

My greetings cards have been very popular in recent weeks - cheerful, colourful and blank for your own message inside so suitable for every occasion - birthdays, get well soon, or just to say 'thinking of you' or 'miss you'...

I've now just a handful left of the old designs, so I decided to re-stock with some new colourful card designs to help you send love and cheer to those you can't be with...

• It’s a celebration of a year of trees - a calendar idea that allocates a tree to a month (or period of time) similar to the zodiac idea that we’re all familiar with.

• The months are actually based around lunar months of 28 days so there are 13 months and 13 corresponding trees in each year.​

​

• The Celtic Tree Calendar that’s widely used is based on Robert Graves’ idea of a Celtic Tree Calendar put forward in his book ‘The White Goddess’.

​

The Celtic Tree Calendar is actually a beautiful idea – focusing our attention on our different trees and appreciating their beauty as well as their natural history and the parts they’ve played in our own social and cultural story…

I love the idea and I’ve based my latest Celtic Tree Project around the 13 tree months – although I also intend including other favourite trees later (so hopefully your own favourite tree will be there before too long, as well…).

​I'll show you my Celtic Tree Calendar artworks project at the end of the post (or you can scroll down now if you can't wait!!)...

It’s certainly a wonderful idea and it’s really captured the public imagination. I think it’s a great way for us all to feel more connected with nature…

My Celtic hare art – plus I take a dive into hare meaning, myth, folklore, stories, and hare symbolism…

The hare is one of my favourite wild animals – and I’m lucky that I get to see them relatively often as they seem to love the large flat fields we have here in the east of Yorkshire.

I’ve watched them boxing in fields in March, loping across grassy stretches, hunkering down with a flick of the ear, and one summer, I was fortunate enough to regularly see a family of young leverets playing in the early mornings in a field near my home.

Mysterious, swift, wild, otherworldly… the hare is one of our most cherished countryside animals – and far more than just a big rabbit!

If you watch a hare run, it’s almost impossible to mistake her for a rabbit – a hare runs more like a dog or deer, where a rabbit simply hops.

The hare has the ​air of something fleeting – fleet of foot, but also something ephemeral – a wildness that can’t be tamed, a creature that’s not quite of this world…

So the myths, stories and folklore around the beautiful hare are in many ways perfectly understandable and only add to our intrigue with this creature of the wild as we try to entice her through our stories to become a part of our world.
​

My Celtic oak art – plus oak meaning, symbolism, myth and stories…

The oak is traditionally seen as the ‘King of the Forest’ or the ‘Father of Trees’. It’s a native British tree that at one time was incredibly widespread – in the time of King Henry VIII one third of Britain was covered in oak forests.

The trees are slow growing - producing hard, valuable timber – and can live to over 700 years old, sometimes 1000 years or more.

The oak is called ‘a garden and a country’ as it provides a whole ecosystem of life from small ferns and other plants growing in its nooks and crannies to fungi, lichen and (rarely) mistletoe – as well as being home to numerous insects, birds, and even small mammals.

Acorns are said to be ‘man’s first food’ in the legends of several different cultures – and humans have used this tree for building, furniture, healing, and food, as well as the tree having symbolic, social, and cultural importance throughout the ages.

Let’s explore our relationship with the oak tree…