Projects

Wild Moments Exhibition

Travels, Exhibitions and Collaborations in a busy October!

Exhibition at the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club

I am just back from a very enjoyable trip to Scotland. I was there to deliver work to the very lovely Waterston House Gallery, at the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club. the show is called “Wild Moments”. I am showing pieces from my graphic story “Shearwater” as well as some other wildlife cartoons. “Shearwater” was originally inspired by taking part in the Copeland Art Project, Funded by Ards and North Down Borough Council. 12 artists travelled to the Copeland Bird observatory, spending a weekend there before creating exhibitions in response. We were all astounded by the experience of seeing and hearing Shearwaters return to their burrows under cover of darkness.

In 2020 I was lucky to receive a bursary, again from Ards and North Down Borough Council, for a one week stay at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. Here I worked on the Shearwater project, developing the story and planning the 42 pages which I later created for this exhibition.

The show is a 3 person exhibition and also features work from Melanie Mascharenas and Lorna Hamilton. Each of us, as well as being inspired by wildlife, has an element of storytelling in our work. We have also all been recipients of bursaries from the Society of Wildlife Artists to attend the John Busby Seabird Drawing course run at Dunbar, just along the coast from Waterston House.

Work by Lorna Hamilton
Work by Melanie Mascarenhas

North Down Craft Collective return to Kylestone with maker Showcases

Closer to home, you can find me at Kylestone Nursaries, Groomsport, on 16th October for a maker showcase. These showcases were originally introduced last year by North Down Craft Collective to enable their members to trade in the restricted conditions of the pandemic while their usual hall in Holywood was out of use. And this year they are back! Each Saturday in the run up to Christmas a selection of NDCC members and friends will showcase their work in a series of mini pop ups. All being well a larger Christmas market will take place on 27 November. If you are local, do try and get down to support your local creative businesses! you can see which makers are appearing each week by following the North Down Craft Collective Facebook page.

And yet more travels…

Towards the end of October I will be on the road again, this time to Waterford to take part in “Imaginings, A Showcase of Ideas”. I will be presenting “Catalan Butterflies” in collaboration with the poet, Laurence O’Dwyer. Our collaboration arose out of conversations while at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in 2020, and in 2021, Laurence contacted me to ask if I would be interested in creating paper objects in response to his series of poems inspired by Catalan butterflies and his travels in the Pyrenees. I was, of course, delighted. The Imagine Festival has kindly awarded us a small grant to present this work in development to an audience on 22 October at the Garter Lane Theatre. We will present along with 2 other collaborative groups. I am very much looking forward to the trip and the evening which will be a new and challenging departure for me and for my paper art work.

Here is a little preview of “Arlequi” – one of the works I will be showing.

paper butterfly

Travels, Exhibitions and Collaborations in a busy October! Read More »

Logo for Top Floor At Gallery next to a photograph of paper robins hanging on an ornamental twig arrangement

The Great Kit Challenge 2021

I am very excited to be taking part in this great local initiative from Emma Whitehead and Top Floor Art. The project is supporting 17 artists to develop what they do into a craft kit. Some of the kits will be designed for sale and some for supplying community groups. Each artist has received a small materials grant. There is also a mutually supportive facebook group where we are discussing our kits and asking for advice and ideas. I am hoping to develop the famous Bob the Robin into a kit.

Besides developing our kits for sale, We will celebrate the project with an Exhibition at Top Floor Art in Saintfield in August.

Alongside the challenge, there is a crowd funding campaign to raise further funds to support the project. You can see a video about the project at Go Fund Me. Yours truly features briefly!
www.gofundme.com/f/The-Great-Kit-Challenge-2021

You can find out more about Top Floor Art and the progress of the project at their website and facebook page:
http://topfloorart.com/
https://www.facebook.com/topfloorart


‘Wild Things’ Postcard exhibition now live

My ant drawings are now live in The Wild Things virtual postcard exhibition on the Beach Gallery, Orkney’s website. Everything is postcard sized and everything is £25. All the pieces can be seen in their online shop:

https://www.beachgallery.co.uk/wildthingsexhibition

The exhibition also got a mention on BBC Radio Orkney just before it opened. Here is the blog that Carolyn, the gallery owner, wrote about the experience. follow the link there to hear the recording and a very lovely Scottish accent in the form of the interviewer, Cameron!

https://www.beachgallery.co.uk/post/beach-makes-the-bbc-news


New card designs now available

In between developing a Bob kit, I have been busy making my lockdown vector drawings into new cards. Here are some of my new designs. In addition to single cards, I have created two new packs of five – “Scottish Wildcat” and “Rivers and Lakes”. Hopefully I will be out and about in person with them this summer, but in the meantime you can buy from:

The Craft Room Comber

Or on line from Love from the Artist

Single cards
https://www.lovefromtheartist.com/artists/ballygowan/adele-pound-art
New packs “Scottish Wildcat ” and “Rivers and Lakes”
https://www.lovefromtheartist.com/Artists/ballygowan/adele-pound-art/card-packs

“Tuftie”
“Dipper”
“Scottish Wildcat”
“Kingfisher”
“Pochard”
“River Sprite”

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