I’m very pleased to announce my participation in this wonderful illustration exhibition at Gallery TEN this month! It is a great collection of new and emerging illustrators such as Robbie Porter (whose image is on the flyer), Kara Seaman and Mina Braun, as well as more well-known names Alice Melvin and Catherine Rayner.

The exhibition is running from now until March 10th at Gallery TEN, 10 Stafford Street, Edinburgh (in the West End). There will be a special Meet the Artists event on Thursday, March 21st from 17:30 to 19:30. It will be a lovely evening, with the event taking place across other shops on Stafford Street such as Paper Tiger, Remus interior design and Studio One. I hope to see you there!

The winter festive season is approaching, and I have a bit of news for you!

Edinburgh Printmakers, where I make my prints and where I’m proud and pleased to say I currently work as studio assistant, is having its annual Open Day this Saturday, November 17th, 11:00 – 17:00. The EP members’ exhibition will also open on this day and there are many fun events, demonstrations and taster courses to participate in. Unfortunately this year I will not be helping out, however, for the Christmas season has begun! and I will be holding a market stall with studio-mate Mina Braun at the Market at St.Columba’s by the Castle, also on November 17th 11:00-17:00. You lucky folk can make a day of it and come to both events!

Another very exciting development is the opening of a new gallery in Edinburgh’s West End, run by Paul Musgrove and Gill Tyson. Gallery TEN opened its doors at the beginning of the month with a spectacular collection of original prints from printmaking collective SpeKtrum Collective, among them Patrizio Belcampo, Kelly Stewart, Jessica Crisp, Alfons Bytautas and Anne Forte as well as Paul and Gill themselves. My newest collection of selkie lithographs are also premiering there and are hanging very beautifully! (I will write more about this ongoing series in a later blog post.) Gallery TEN is located very centrally on Stafford Street, and I am pleased to say there is a lot of footfall and things are going well! There will be a special Meet-the-Artist opening day 11:00 – 19:00 on December 1st, which I might be able to drop in to in the evening – it would be delightful to see you!

The reason I won’t be at Gallery TEN all day is because December 1st also sees the next market at which I’ll be selling my work: the Christmas Arts Market at Out of the Blue in Leith. I have been busy printing a new Christmas card design onto lovely Gmund beer paper (made of beer fibres and recycled beermats!) – in fact it is quite non-denominational and contains no writing, and so is ideal for sending seasonal cheer to anyone at your midwinter-festival-of-choice. I’ll be selling these at the markets on November 17th and December 1st, and they are also available in my online shops. I look forward to seeing you at all or any of these events!

Well it’s been a long time since my last update and there is suddenly a lot to say!

I have mostly been busy with a series of lithographs on the theme of selkies. Each print seems to bring a new challenge, as I am still relatively new to stone lithography and there is a lot to learn, but I am enjoying it immensely. Not only are you making nice prints, you also get a full work-out using the big ink rollers and moving the large slabs of limestone about. I should think lithographers are easily the fittest of printmakers! There is also a rhythm to grinding the stones and rolling the ink that made me think there should be lithography-shanties. Or perhaps that is just my maritime theme…

On to the news of upcoming exhibitions, fairs and shows!

Last night was the opening night of Wonderland, an Alice-themed show at the O3 Gallery in Oxford. I am very pleased to have one of my Childfriend pieces included in the exhibition. It is a rather old piece of mine and it was really wonderful to get it framed and show it to the public, as that was really not foremost in my mind when I made that series of collages in my student days in Berlin. (It also occurred to me while looking at Xie Kitchin’s sullen face that while my hair was quite short when I made that piece, I now have rather much the same hairstyle and quite possibly the same facial expression). In any case, the exhibition in Oxford runs until August 5th, there will be several events during that time, among others a talk by Mark Richards, the chairman of the Lewis Carroll Society.

Next Friday is the opening of the first group exhibition in Berlin I have done in a while. It is curated by fellow alumnus Simona Soare and includes many old friends such as Gowara Minsa and Annegret Eisele, and many other fantastic artists. The title of the show is Licht Farbe Linie – Light Color Line, and opens on July 13th at 7 p.m. There will be talks and performances. It is in the Spreehöfe in Berlin-Köpenick, and will be open to the public throughout the weekend as part of the “Kunst am Spreeknie” arts festival. The exhibition will still be able to be viewed by arrangement until July 28th. You can see the flyer and find out more on Simona’s website here.

Closer to home, The Fruitmarket Gallery is hosting another Design Market the coming weekend, which I will be attending with Mina Braun, Emily Mackenzie and Lizzie Cameron. It opens on Friday 13th at 5 p.m. and will be open Saturday and Sunday too – I hope to see you there!

I’m also pleased to announce that I now have cards and artist books in two shops in England, LMNOP in Brighton and Nook&Cranny in Liverpool. If you’re in the area, please pay them a visit!

Another exhibition that I hiley recommend you go and see, if you can, is Reflective Histories at Traquair House in the Scottish Borders. It is curated by Edinburgh Printmakers and shows the sometimes half-concealed reflections of the invited artists on Traquair House and its colourful history. You will have to keep your eyes peeled to find all of the artworks! I really enjoyed it.

That’s all for now! I hope you have a good summer – as always, if you have any questions, please get in touch via the “contact” page on this website, or find me on facebook and twitter for smaller, unsignificant updates and snippets of works in progress…

Thanks to everyone who came to the Artists’ BookMarket at the Fruitmarket Gallery yesterday – I had a very good time and was pleased with the reception of my new book, Selkie, which you can now see in the Books section. I’ve been fascinated by the myths of the seal people ever since coming to Scotland three years ago, and I think this will be reflected more in my future work as well.

The next market I will be at is on April 28th, in St.Columba’s by the Castle, Edinburgh. This will be an arts&crafts market with many fantastic stalls by local artisans. I look forward to being a part of it, and may have some wee surprises for you! I shall once again be sharing a stall with my comrade-in-arms Mina Braun, and we’re looking forward to seeing you!

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Here’s a round-up of the christmas arts markets I will be selling at in Edinburgh this year! I’ll be in good company on various occasions, with Mina Braun, Patrizio Belcampo, Eleni Kalorkoti, Louise Smurthwaite, Rosie Walters and more. This is the perfect opportunity for you to get something special, beautiful, hand-made, individual and local for your midwinter-festival-of-choice!

BOOKMARKET at the Fruitmarket Gallery, on Thursday, December 8th, 18:30 – 22:00 (Facebook page here)
EDIT: this was postponed due to adverse weather conditions! It is now taking place on Monday, Dec 12th, 18:30 – 22:00

Out of the Blue on Saturday, December 10th, 11:00 – 17:00

St.Columba’s by the Castle, Saturday, December 17th, from 12:00. (Event listing here)

I’ll be selling my finished ‘Aerial Trilogy’ (In The Silks, On The Trapeze and Rope, which you can see in the books section), new lithographs, screenprints and lots and lots of seasonal cards! Do stop by and say hello, I look forward to seeing you.

Also a reminder that First Press, the inaugural exhibition of SpeKtrum Print Collective, is still on at the Whitespace Gallery, Edinburgh, until December 15th. It is a gorgeous show I am very proud to be part of, so don’t miss it!

Merry Midwinter!

I hope you’re all having a good August! I began the month ankle-deep in the mud at the Traquair Fair, leading screenprinting workshops with Edinburgh Printmakers. It was great fun! I really enjoyed teaching paper-stencil screen-printing. Most of my protégées were children and it was wonderful to see their astonishment at the technique and delight with their finished work.

A few days ago was the opening of INSPIRED, a group show of EP members at the Coburg House Art Studios in Leith. The gallery space there is really lovely and I think we put a good show together. My work is in the most fantastic old wooden display case, inherited from Edinburgh Castle I believe. I am showing artist’s books this time – the “Aerial Trilogy”, made up of In The Silks, On The Trapeze and the third book in this small series, Rope. There is also another new book, based on labyrinths and the monsters within. Unfortunately I haven’t got photographs of these new books up yet, but of course you can see them in the exhibition!

Another opportunity to see and buy new work – and have a chat! – will be on Sunday, August 28th at Edinburgh Printmakers, at their first ever Summer Fayre! I shall be sharing a table again with the lovely Mina Braun and we’re looking forward to seeing you! More information can be found on EP’s facebook page, here.

Further afield, my lutenist in Lederhosen has made it into BITE, the new format of Originals printmaking exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London. I’m very pleased to be included in what promises to be a great show.

So here’s a quick round-up of where you can catch my work until the beginning of September:

FIXED DIMENSIONS, Amber Arts Gallery, Edinburgh, until September 3rd

INSPIRED, Coburg House Art Studios, Edinburgh, until September 1st

BITE, Mall Galleries, London, until September 3rd

SUMMER FAYRE, Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh, on August 28th.

See you there!