I’ve been absent from ye olde blog lately. It’s been a busy time here in old Mapperley-topsville. Halloween’s been and gone (shocking! – no pun intended). The trick and treaters ate ALL my sweets – totally not cool. I spent most of last week either living at the cinema or buried in my paints. The painting right at the top is finished, phew! and it’s the biggest I’ve done so far so I’m really pleased with how it’s come out. As you can see there’s a handful more I’m currently working on. I’m looking forward to framing the finished pieces and who knows they might make a formal appearance in the lovely shop sometime before Christmas!

Talking of Christmas – The cards are back for sale in the shop and a new one will be joining them before the week is out. Not to forget some lovely new stocking fillers will be tagging along too – I just need a new staple gun to complete that mission.

The Makeover mission’s been a proper challenge recently but I’ll come back to that with pictures and heart wrenching tales of sighs and grumps. Until then, for those of you who have some halloween candy left over – enjoy! For those of you, like me, who don’t – Fancy a cuppa?

ps for the next 24 hours (until 11am Thursday) get yourself 20% off in my shop! use the code BLACKCATS.

pps – A little Halloween illya roar for those of you who missed it:

Here are some (very pink) snap shots of my doodle from this weekend’s “Raise the Roof” festival that was going on at Nottingham Contemporary. Sorry about the poor picture quality – I should be getting some better ones soon but I wanted to share a picture of my life size cat lady. I love doing these wall doodles!

2 new mini paintings are now in the shop – Priced at £25 each and both measuring roughly 4″ x 5.5″. Both pieces were featured in the “Looking for Trouble” exhibition I set up earlier this summer. I’m trying to find loving homes for these originals otherwise they’ll just end up living in boxes, which is sad because they’re so colourful and I’m sure they would much prefer to live on nice walls. I have some of the framed ones from the same show making their way into the shop really soon too so keep your eyes peeled!

A little glimpse at what I’m making. These things have been so popular and I love painting on them. So far I have completed 9, so there will be a big shop update when these beauties are ready. I’ll keep you posted of course!

Tonight we’re off to the theatre to see THIS!!! I’ve not been to see a play in soooo long and I got so excited about the prospect of going to see some whodunnits on stage that I went and bought my tickets at the start of MAY. Early bird indeed – BUT it means we should have great seats. Tonight’s performance is “Sweet Revenge” – A Francis Durbridge classic. We’re going to start the evening off with Pizza too… Oh what a perfect line-up. Pizza and a splash of murder… so exciting!

2 new paintings making their way into the shop! Both these pieces were in the recent show at the Malt Cross and are priced at £55 each. Keep your eyes peeled for more paintings up for grabs very soon!

I can’t stop making these blankets and I love making them BUT I have no more room left to keep new ones… so I’m going to sell them. Here’s the first stripey one available in the shop. Priced at £75 and measuring 60″ x 70″. A handy extra bed cover (for when this heatwave goes away again) and perfect for basking on the lawn or in the park. Made using Acrylic and Wool mix Aran weight yarns it’s easy to look after and machine washable (wash at 30 on a wool/delicate setting to be on the safe side)

Now time for some daft illya pictures (it’s been a while since the last.. how can something so small take up so much room??)

Here’s a quick post and a picture of the paintings I made for the show! I took loads of pictures on the night and they’ve all come out a bit yellow – so they need serious editing and fixing. I’ll have a selection of everyone’s work to show soon!

I’m busy getting all the work ready for the shows next week. Tomorrow my Nottingham Castle painting experience begins. I’ve planned a nice packed lunch to take with me to ease the nerves – so now I’m looking forward to tomorrow lunch time, which means by then I should be at least 3 or 4 hours into the piece. Cunning yes? I hope the distraction works!

Today I’ve been colouring in the smaller pieces and apart from the name tags I’m pretty close to the finishing line! That’s a really good feeling!

Last week I received this beauty in the post made by the talented Tracey Meek! Isn’t she cool? I’m completely smitten with Miss Meek’s work – her Russian dolls are amazing and definitely on my wish list.

It’s official and it’s right around the corner!!!

I’ve been plotting and planning this little adventure for months and months and it’s only recently sunk in that it’s happening in less than 2 weeks!!! (slight panic)

I present to you, via The Malt Cross Gallery (Nottingham), a group show featuring art work and loveliness by Gemma Correll, Lizzy Stewart, Helen Entwisle, Jen Collins, Gemma Latimer and myself.

The opening evening starts from 4pm and there will be a lovely little table of artist books and zines available for you to purchase. Everyone’s welcome! Come along and say hello! Also, spread the word!!

PS – Here’s a link to a little article I got in the local Left Lion paper. Says a little bit about what to expect from my corner of the show.