I was commissioned to make a drawing of Little Totham Church for a wedding anniversary gift. It really is a beautiful building.
Little Totham Church Commission
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Tag Archives: gift
Hollyhock Bookmark
After many years admiring other people’s summer hollyhock displays I finally managed to grow some from seed this year. My Mum loves hollyhocks too, she had collected the seeds from some beautiful plants that were growing out of the concrete at the edge of a car park in town. I think the fact that such delicate but exuberant loveliness can thrive on apparently nothing adds to the wonder of the hollyhock. The name is also a bonus for a Hockey!
I noticed recently that my Mum’s bookmark had been well used into tattiness so I painted her a new hollyhock bookmark for her birthday.
Water resistant pen, watercolour paint, 300gsm watercolour paper.
Bespoke Birthday Card
My godmother recently turned 100 – what an achievement!
So I made a bespoke birthday card for her special birthday.
Wedding Anniversary Card
My mum and dad celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary today. What an incredible feat of love and endurance! As is their style they opted for a no fuss approach, eschewing a party or any such public hoo-ha.
So what to give a beloved couple who have everything as a gift for their diamond wedding anniversary?
Well, apart from each other (and me), the most precious thing in their lives is their delightful little dog Sam. I decided to make them a four panel fold out greetings card with Sam as the star.
Materials: I worked from photos using pencil, water resistant pen and watercolour paints on handmade 300g watercolour paper with a deckled edge.
My dad often wonders what Sam is thinking…
He is a clever little chap but mental arithmetic probably doesn’t take up much of his time!
Apparently, multiplying by seven is no longer a valid way to convert human years into dog years. Dogs age more rapidly in the first few years of their lives so it’s necessary to apply the above equation.
As a confirmed spinster, my parents’ long and successful marriage has been a source of admiration and incredulity to me for me ages. I’ve previously written ‘Happy 100th Wedding Anniversary’ in their cards as a joke so the dog years conversion is just an exaggeration of that. That Sam is my only sibling is also a family joke.
And it just so happens that Sam does have a heart-shaped hairstyle on his bottom, my mum recently mentioned how beautiful it is…
How romantic and appropriate!
Happy Wedding Anniversary Mum & Dad!
Freddie – Portrait of a Baby
My friends recently celebrated the first birthday of their delightful grandson Fred and very kindly invited me to the party. I decided to make a portrait to commemorate the event.
Freddie is already a star on Instagram so I chose my favourite photo of him from his mum’s gallery – it has something of the sage about it – and made a series of simple pencil drawings until I was happy that the outline did the handsome little chap justice.
I then uploaded a photograph of the drawing into Photoshop, cleaned up the linework and started playing about with classic pop art parodies.
The first version was an Andy Warhol style set of four coloured squares, but I found it too busy….
so I simplified it and made the colours more muted
Then I thought I’d have a go at a version of the Obama Hope poster by Shepard Fairey
I got both versions (above and top) printed, popped them into frames and gift wrapped them; they seemed to be received rather well.
Happy birthday Freddie – you lovely boy! xx