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Every year, I used to design my own Christmas card to send out to clients, family and friends. But for the last 2 or 3 years I've been either too busy or too lazy and have let things slip a little. This year however, I've got things sorted already...
Yes, this is Giddy Goat, albeit looking a little compromised by his circumstances! He's being sold to raise money for charity by It's Good 2 Give, who support young people with cancer, and their families, in a whole range of fantastic ways.
There are other lovely designs you can choose from too. I particularly like this stunning Robin photo which won a photography award for Alexis Manson in the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh / Scotsman photo competition this year.
All the cards are packed in ten’s and cost £3.50 per pack. NB: I don't have the cards at my end: you order them here.
Sadly, my one man show in Salford, Llamas in Pyjamas, has come down now, but the mixed show, Picture This!, has just opened at Gallery Oldham - hurrah! Things have been so crazy-busy that I haven't been to see it yet, but Anna, the curator, has sent me a couple of photos of the huge, vertical jigsaws they have created from a couple of my illustrations.
On the other side of the board, is another jigsaw, created from a spread from Giddy Goat by Jamie Rix:
0 Comments on Illustration Exhibition: Giant Children's Jigsaws as of 1/1/1900
Actually, there were about 8 sicks, all last night, pretty much on the hour (groan). I think I know what was to blame: a little bit of left-over cheese that, thinking about it now, had been lurking in the fridge for rather too long. It tasted all right, but then it was blue cheese, so how would you tell?
I'm feeling a bit delicate, though no longer sick, thank goodness. I have successfully managed a mug of weak tea since I got up, but am pretty hungry now, so am working up to negotiating a slice of bread...
I'm very grateful this didn't happen a day later, as tomorrow I am in a school all day!
I was supposed to visit Nottingham last month, but a
volcano in Iceland had other ideas! Fortunately I managed to email from Naples, and we rescheduled. It came back around on Monday and I hopped on the train.
It was something a bit different: I ran a series of workshops in February for Y7 classes across 5 secondary schools in the city. These were a jumping off point for longer projects, part of a big competition, which came to fruition last month. I was excited to see the results...
Originally I was to judge the competition, but we decided it wasn't logistically possible for me to do everything in a day, so the teachers chose 5 winners from each school and I just gave out the prizes. I presented each winner with a certificate and a place on a day trip to Birmingham Art Gallery next month, including a drawing workshop.
I really enjoyed looking at all the work chosen, especially as each school did something slightly different. Fernwood children wrote and illustrated their own quite extraordinary picture books, each beautifully presented and very different from one another. I was very impressed by their creativity and hard work. Above are their 5 winners.
Farnborough created these lovely and unusual self portraits in pastels and collage. As you can see, the winners were wonderfully colourful and funky.
Bulwell children re-wrote and illustrated the Goldilocks story (in French no less!), each putting their own spin on the traditional tale with some great new characters. Giddy Goat even makes an appearance in one, if you look closely...
NUSA childr
When I showed John the photo of the goats in the tree, he didn't believe that it was real: 'it's probably Photoshopped,' he said. Well, Mr Smarty-Pants-Goat-Doubter, here is the evidence! No less than 16 goats, jumping out of a similar, albeit slightly more robust, tree (thanks Mum!)
Apparently they are after the rather tasty nuts that local formers use to make oil.Here is a rather more hair-raising Giddy Goat scenario, somewhat reminiscent of this illustration from Giddy The Great.
Yes, it seems they really do try and climb on sheer rock faces (stupid creatures!). But, as you can see, their feet are not always quite so successfully like 'sticky socks'.
Saturday was the big opening day of my exhibition. Thank you SO much to all those who turned up to support me. And thank you to the gallery for the wine and nibbles!
This is me with the lovely Damian Harvey, author of An Itch to Scratch (as well as many other fab books, including the incredibly successful Robo-Runners series).
As well as the preview evening, the Funday celebrations proved a huge success, and the day was really buzzing. I hardly sat down from the moment we opened the doors!
I did storytellings throughout the day, and children played in the monkey's tea party area, based on Stinky!:
They could stick their heads through a hole in the wall to actually be one of the monkeys:
...and on the other side, they could be one of the children the anaconda ate in Class Two at the Zoo:
I am hoping that children might be inspired to try some illustrations of their own, so we created a drawing area, with ideas for things to try, including step-by-step guides to drawing characters from my books, like Giddy Goat (which I will eventually get around to putting on the website - promise!):
There are other silly activities, like stick-the-flies-on-Stinky, the baby warthog:
...and also a quiet reading area (below), with copies of my books for children to look at.
Throughout the day, children made Giddy Goat puppets and had their faces painted by one of the most impressive face-painters I've seen. I SO wish I'd had time to stop and take some pics to show you (these photos were all taken in the brief window, before the Private View really got going).
Apart from the face painting, the children's activities are a permanent part of the exhibition, but I don't want you to think it's just aimed at kids. For adult visitors, I have written a whole series of information sheets which are mounted on the walls between the pictures. These cover everything from why I choose to draw on pink paper and why wording must never appear on the illustrations, to anecdotes like the gorilla nipple debacle!
I'm thrilled by how the show has been set up - a massive thanks to Marie and Katie for all their help with the design, project management and the hard slog. I hope they are as proud of how it looks as I am.
The exhibition runs until November 7th, so there is plenty of time to see it if you missed the preview. It is at Tameside Central Art Gallery, above the library (postcode OL6 7SG). There are directions and details of how to get there here, or you can phone the gallery on 0161 342 2650.
Hope you enjoy it!
I have been going through my Mum's archives recently, sorting out some images of me as a child to use as part of my exhibition. This photo, age 7, is probably the first time I posed with Giddy Goat (or perhaps Giddy's grandad). The little boys are my twin baby brothers. We were in London Zoo I believe.
I thought children visitors to the exhibition might like to see what I was like as a child, and also some drawings I did when I was little. My Mum is great - she's saved so many of the drawings I did, that I had a treasure trove to choose from. I thought you might like to see some too:
The man above was done when I was 3, the dancing cat a year later. This is a photo of me at that time, age 4:
I thought this one was rather cute - it's from my school news book, age 5. It was only my 2nd term of school (what an extraordinary thought!).
And this hilariously goofy photo is my first school photo, taken in the same year:
On my 40th birthday, this photo somehow escaped, and one of my friends printed T-shirts from it. How embarrassing.
At least some of these images are going to form part of a big introduction board at the beginning of my exhibition, giving background about me and my work. Like the fact that I actually trained as a textile designer not an illustrator at all! This is a very, very old sketchbook from those textiles days:
A courier came yesterday and took all my exhibition artwork away to Tameside, to be framed. It's all starting to feel real, and I'm getting all giddy again!
Thank you Lynne for your kindness in donating Giddy to us. He has become a real favourite already. Plus we have the original to auction at our Ball in March.
It means a lot to us!
thank you.
lynne mcnicoll
It's Good 2 Give
That's a really good card! :)
You're welcome Lynne! By the way, can you send me a link that people can use to buy them? The one I have from your blog post isn't connecting.
Very cute card, you are way ahead, I haven't even thought about Christmas yet.
I love the goat...and the robin too! :D
What a lovely goat:)So cute!And the robin is fantastic!