weeds

this flower is amazing!

It was all about wild flowers at last weeks Chelsea Flower Show, weeds to you and me which makes our garden bang on trend with not a great deal of effort. I would say that I am very much an accidental gardener and our little square is rampaging with comfrey, herb robert, fennel, mint, oxeye daises, figwort, foxgloves and iris, most found there own way here and spread themselves around at the expense of any new plants I introduce so I don't bother anymore. Our allotment is less successful, I have to say we are rather half hearted vegetable growers and we were shamed into giving half the plot back this year and so with less space to tame we have no excuse. However, at the moment it's a rather nice place to drink tea from a flask, eat cake and grow tasty snacks for the local wild life, must try harder..

in the shops 2

......and here they are, rocking horse prints in my etsy and online shops now.

These are hand screen-printed by me onto lovely thick 285g italian paper using vibrant water based inks.

in the shops

Rocking horse cushions are in my etsy and online shops now! Printed onto white linen in my favourite colours of charcoal and olive or teal with grey linen reverse. 30x40cm prints to follow.

rock on

It's the second weekend of open studio and I found time this week between drawing lions and designing puddings to make a new screen inspired by my mid-century rocking horse. This one is a little more plump and is sporting a fine Welsh blanket. I will see how it goes over this weekend it should appear in my shop next week.

We are open today from 11am to 6pm details on the Open House website we are number 157 on the venue map.

happy lion

I am up to leo in my horoscope illustrations for Red Magazine so looking for lions everywhere. The lion that I grew up with and my favourite (alongside Parsley) is the Happy Lion by Louise Fatio with lovely illustrations by Roger Duviosin. There were a series of Happy Lion story books first published between the fifties and seventies and I have three of them, picked up over the years in charity and second hand book shops. I think they have been reissued now, but the new versions are never the same so I am always on the look out for the originals. Plenty of copies new and old available online.

roddy&ginger at home

First day of open house over, the sun came out and it has been a busy one. It all starts again tomorrow from 11am to 6pm. All information on the Open House website where you can also find us on a map (we are no. 157, on the fringe near the woods)

for arts sake

I went to see the Damien Hirst exhibition at Tate Modern. I have always felt that DH was a bit of a fraudster but I have to say I thought the exhibition was quite amazing. Seeing this amount of his work in one place was pretty impressive. I was shocked, amused, disgusted, fascinated, charmed, the lot - don't miss it.

When I visit Tate Modern, I always go across the road to Marcus Campbell art bookshop. Second hand art books ancient and modern, and a huge and varied range of old exhibition catalogues at just one or two pounds each, always worth browsing through. You can scatter them around at home and make like you are really well travelled and clued up on the international art world!

The rhino is a particular favourite, all in French so not sure what it is all about but I love the illustrations.

open studio 2012

I came home the other day to a massive estate agents sign outside our house. Hello, I thought, are we for sale? No, it's advertising our open studio for the next two weekends. We will be open on 12th/13th May and 19th/20th May from 11am to 6pm. Wallpaper, cushions, prints, tea towels, seconds and samples to buy all at special open studio prices. All information on the Open House website where you can also find us on a map (we are no. 157, on the fringe near the woods)

There are a lot of artists and designers showing their work over the two weekends so I think it's well worth the trip to leafy Southeast London. The sad thing is that I am on duty here so I can't get out to visit any other studios. But if I could, here is where I would go this year:
Sally Nencini
Lubna Chowdhary
Bainbridge Studios
Museum of Colour
Chocolate Creative
Charlene Mullen
Schneider
Kay Vincent

Lots more here.

gemini

Red Magazine asked me to illustrate their horoscope page this year which is a lovely job and comes round every month! Starting with Gemini for the June issue, at quite short notice so a pair of dancing ladies stepped in for this one. The next will be Cancer which was quite a challenge, crabs are not easy!