This book depicts a woman wandering a forest at night holding a candle that illuminates the ivy-clad trees. A crescent moon hangs in a star filled sky. As usual there are 12 illustrated pages, six either side of the central spread.
I have a luxury, black, gift box in which to send it or, if required, I could get a box frame especially made.
I’m inclining towards drawing mysterious women in the landscape – I’m in a phase bordering on fantasy and dream! There may well be more of this sort of thing to come :)
I am very happy to have a couple of artworks in the lovely shop Objet Trouvé in the nearby village of Alfriston. Objet Trouvé describes itself as ‘a distinctive arts and curiosities shop/gallery’. It’s a treasure trove of wonderful things.
The main artwork is a box-framed altered book – Badgers beneath the Moon. I feel proud that it’s in the window of the gallery at the moment:
An object — often utilitarian, manufactured, or naturally occurring — that was not originally designed for an artistic purpose, but has been repurposed in an artistic context.
Pablo Picasso was the first to use the term publically. I guess that altered books come under this definition – I haven’t thought of it in that way before.
I’m hoping to have more of my altered books framed in a similar way and will continue to explore using found materials in my artworks.
Last year I was approached by a book publisher to design a cover for a new book set in the world of Alice in Wonderland. They wanted me to create an altered book that could be developed into a cover. Sadly, for me, the cover was rejected and they used another – very good – altered book artist, Isobelle Ouzman (if you don’t know her work, do check her out).
Anyway, I thought I’d share my Alice (or rather ‘Alyce’) altered book.
I can understand why it was rejected – too busy for a cover design. I was following a brief, but with limited guidance. Nevermind.
Now I’ve decided to sell it.
There are three illustrated pages including the top page. Below these there is a deepening, blue-inked hole that has been cut into the book (the actual book I’ve used is a secondhand Alice in Wonderland edition). I may decide to continue the illustration over the left hand page.
The hole represents a pond and it goes quite deep into the book. The final pages of the pond are unillustrated.
Below is my ‘cover’ minus the title and author’s name. Perhaps I’ll make a card out of it?
The altered book is available to buy in my website shop and on Etsy, or contact me if you’re interested.
I’ve been quiet on here for a while, occupied with projects that I can’t talk about just yet. But here is one I can – another altered book I’ve titled Returning to the Garden.
With this book I wanted to stray away slightly from my purely wildlife themed books and feature a woman from a previous century wandering the grounds of an old house. The older I get the more interested I become in the past – from prehistory to my own past – and that includes the time of Jane Austen, the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
And my interest in the dress has returned – there’s a woman in a long dress among the pen and ink trees. I came across the work of the artist Victoria Brookland, who exhibits at the Masham Gallery. From the gallery I bought some postcards of her artworks and then a little book titled Wearer Unknown.
Victoria Brookland postcards and book
I love her imaginative and somewhat dark imagery and her bodiless dresses, from which all manner of strange and wonderful beings and things spring. She was interested in the Brontes, while I find myself curious about Jane Austen, especially after seeing Stephanie Smart’s paper dresses at Firle House. that I wrote about here.
The current BBC One drama, Miss Austen, based on the book by Gill Hornby, helps fuel my interest. The series is about letters and I’m intrigued by letters and diaries. I visited Jane Austen’s house in Chawton a few years ago and saw her writing table and notebooks.
Back to my book. It’s called Returning to the Garden as it features a woman wandering the garden of an old house with darkened windows, smoke rising from the chimney. There’s a bonfire lit and a fox creeping the edges. We do not know why the woman is out at night, but I am reminded of how Cassandra Austen, Jane Austen’s sister, was found wandering the garden after reading her dead sister’s letters in the Miss Austen drama series.
I have a new altered sketchbook that I’ve called The Badger Wood. I’m back into woods and all the wonderful, intricate textures and details I love about them.
I wanted to work in a sketchbook this time as I didn’t want to have to stick extra paper into the book as I do with a hardbacked, secondhand book. I can see the appeal of using old books and the surprise of finding the magic of original papercut illustrations inside, but with this one it’s all a bit tidier.
The Badger Wood Altered Sketchbook
As usual there are six illustrated pages each side of the central spread and as the title suggests, there are trees, badgers, a deer, lots of brambles etc as you go deeper into the book and into the wood.
The Badger Wood is available in my Etsy shop where you can also see a video and some inside pages of the book. It’s also now added to my website shop.
I’ve also created some new A5 notebooks using illustrations from my Goddesses of River, Sea and Moon book – Water Goddess Yemanja and Moon Goddess Hina – and another more recent illustration, Waiting for Rain.
Moon Goddess Hina A5 Notebook. Hina is a goddess of the Pacific islands like Tahiti. She is depicted here beating tapa tree bark into cloth.Water Goddess Yemanja A5 Notebook. Yemanja is a goddess of rivers and the ocean. She originated in West Africa. Here she is depicted wearing a dress of seven skirts.Waiting for Rain A5 Notebook.
Each notebook has different coloured inside pages. Water Goddess Yemanja notebook has 80 light blue pages, Moon Goddess Hina notebook has 80 lilac pages and Waiting for Rain notebook has 80 cream inside pages. They’re also available in my Etsy shop.
I’m pleased to say that my Waiting for Rain illustration has been included in the lovely 2024 Earth Pathways Diary along with my Forest Angel picture:
I’ve had enquiries about possible art prints of these two images. Contact me if you’re interested in A4 prints or prints of anything else on the website.
At the end of June we went down to south Devon where we stayed at the truly lovely Hearth Retreat in their little Apple Wagon.
At the Apple Wagon
It was so peaceful, roaming the fields and woods I was in my element. I just happened to be reading The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole – as I am a lover of all rainforests – so it seemed a good idea to visit some temperate rainforest in East Dartmoor National Par, as mentioned in the book.
Temperate – or Atlantic/Celtic rainforest as it is also called – is characterised by trees, often sessile oaks, bearing all sorts of epiphytes – polypody ferns, lichens, mosses, pennywort. The trees literally drip with verdant epiphytic life. Like all rainforests they receive a lot of rainfall that creates rich, moist, tangled layers of lush vegetation that I find incredibly beautiful in dappled sunlight.
We’ve visited smaller patches of rainforest in Wales in the past, but this area in Devon struck me as being more extensive and rich. Nothing beats a river flowing and muttering over rocks in a forest. Here it’s the River Bovey.
A tangle of ferns, mosses and trees with the river just visible below.
When we returned home I decided to work on another rainforest altered book, but this time of a temperate rainforest. I’ve featured an otter – they visit the River Bovey – a couple of stoats, a pied flycatcher and a jay among the ferns, moss, lichen and rocks.
Temperate Rainforest Altered Book
Once again forests feature in my art. Like the author, Jay Griffiths, forests and woods make me happy. Temperate Rainforest Altered Book is available in my Etsy shop and in my website shop.
Twilight seeps through old, gnarled trees. The quiet is broken by a whisper as sparks of flame ignite; there is a fire aglow deep in the forest this night of the full moon, this night of the Dragon Moon.
Listen. What do you hear?
– A baying of hunting dogs far off; the muffled hoot of an owl; the plaintive sigh of a sleeping tree as it slumbers deep in time, ready to awaken, ready to rouse, ready… but not quite.
Wait, while the moon hangs potent and heavy, casting indigo shadows over the castle ruins, something else stirs. On to a mound of rocks climbs an old man, silvered hair and beard shimmering in the light of moon and flame, a whizened wizard of a man.
It is happening.
Suddenly the flames roll into a ball of fire and into the flames the old man raises his arms. In a powerful explosion of light, he brings forth a great dragon from out of the ether, broad as comet, sinewy as snake, as vociferous as any monstrous beast of night. This is the beast of the full moon, unleashed. This is it. This is it. A cry resounds throughout the forest. The awakening has begun…
An altered book commission now off to its new home.
To start the year I’ve added a few new items to my Etsy shop and website shop. First is another papercut concertina card, In the Hedge:
In the Hedge Concertina CardIn the Hedge Concertina Card – backIn the Hedge Concertina Card – frontIn the Hedge Concertina Card – back
I love crouching down and looking into hedges. Often I see birds skulking among an interwoven tangle of branches and leaves of various species. I love leafy detail :) To capture this view I papercut two holes in the card that frame a dunnock’s nest. Dunnocks choose to nest quite close to the ground and are often found in gardens.
When our resident fox visited our garden during daylight hours, we would sometimes find it curled up and tucked beneath a cotoneaster bush. I decided to put a sleeping fox on the back of this new card along with a magpie. It’s interesting that magpies have a special relationship with foxes, often following them about, possibly to benefit from any morsels disturbed by a foraging fox.
I have a few new sepia wildlife cards using images from my Into the Woods calendar. They can be bought separately or as a set of five.
Sepia Wildlife 5-Card Pack
Finally I have a couple of new prints including Night Vigil, which is also a C6 sized greetings card.
Night Vigil A4 Print
I recently listed a new altered book, but it sold very soon after listing. Anyway, here is a photo of Still Deer Moon, that has gone to a new home:
Still Deer Moon altered book
I’m working on a small altered sketchbook that I’ll write about soon. I have ideas for more… meanwhile,
I have a fascination for caves, as you may have seen from previous posts. Royston Cave in Hertfordshire has been on my radar for years. This year we were in the area and booked a tour to see the cave for ourselves.
Carving in Royston Cave.
Royston is a pretty, unassuming town, but it has a Roman road running through it as well as part of the Ichnield Way, an ancient track that runs from Wiltshire to Norfolk. Royston Cave is under the ground in the chalk where the two roads meet.
On the tour we descended steps and then followed a moderately steep passageway extending underground beneath the main road. Soon we found ourselves in a round chamber lit by wall lights. I could see engravings all around the lower part of the cave – faces, figures, crosses, birdlike fish, horses. Apparently the carvings are thought to be of the 14th century – medieval – and may be associated with the Knights Templar. In the 17th century a ten year old boy was instructed to descend into the man-made cave to see if there was any treasure in it. On further investigation the carvings were found.
On the walls, there are many religious depictions and symbols, but also some pagan imagery such as a shela-mi-gig. This shows that the carvings were made when pagan beliefs had not yet been totally obscured by Christianity.
Horse and Sheela na gig in Royston Cave.
Our guide started explaining what she knew about the carvings, starting with a St Christopher figure carrying someone on his shoulder (see the photo below on the left). There are other saints depicted, including Saint Catherine, shown holding a wheel as she was sacrificed on a burning wheel. Today people light Catherine wheels on Guy Fawks night to remember her.
St Christopher in Royston Cave
St Catherine in Royston Cave
To the left of St Christopher is a rectangle representing the tomb where Christ was buried, along with a hand and a bird-fish, possibly symbolising the Holy Spirit or risen Christ. There is a sword and a shield, a horse and the holy family.
Holy Family in Royston Cave. On the right you can see the top of a Templar sword.Figures and Crescent Moon in Royston Cave
There are many other drawings of knights, angels, rows of sinners and a figure holding a candle that may represent the light of the new religion that will lead believers out of darkness. Low down and to the right of the passage entrance is a crescent moon.
It was the figure of St Christopher that made the most impression on me. He is the patron saint of travellers and is said to have carried a child over a river who turned out to be Christ. I kept in mind the image of a figure carrying a rucksack, journeying on foot over the hills and drew and collaged a picture of this figure I have titled The Journeyman.
The Journeyman – A pen and ink drawing with collage.
My figure is walking through a dreamlike, fluid, but fragmented landscape with the chalk figure of The Long Man of Wilmington in the distance. I like the idea of a traveller wandering the land without any particular destination, stopping here and there to find work. The ground in the picture looks unstable, symbolic of the unsettling times we’re living in.
I didn’t know what a journeyman was until I looked it up. Apparently the word originates from the Middle Ages and refers to a worker, such as a craftsman, who has acquired skills as an apprentice, but who is not yet a Master. He would work for an employee, often for a day (‘journée’ means ‘day’ in French) and was also known to travel around the country working here and there. There was a strong journeyman tradition in Europe.
When I googled ‘journeyman woodcut images’ I was surprised at how similar my drawing was to one of them.
I then decided to create an altered book titled The Journeyman.
The Journeyman Altered Book
I had in mind a present day journeyman walking over the Umbrian hills in Italy. I’ve never been to that region of Italy, but I imagined dry, rocky paths, leathery-leaved oaks, ibex and lynx. In my book you can see the spire of a church in the distance, a village in the valley. I’ve featured a cave and remember that there is the unusual, underground, spritual community of Damanhur in Northern Italy.
The altered book has seven illustrated pages on the left of the central spread and six on the right. It will be for sale in my Etsy shop and Reflections website shop soon.
