Goodbye Winter - Hello Spring

Its spring here already and things have certainly been very busy. I've spent a lot of time staring at this computer screen... so it was nice to have a short but sweet break a few weekends ago to visit and climb Mt Maunganui in Tauranga. Forgotten how stunningly beautiful NZ is! Cant wait for longer breaks at the beach over summer.

Lately...

I've started teaching a paper in illustration at wintec this semester which is loads of fun and good for practicing my responsible teaching voice! Ive recently finished album illustrations for a wonderful auckland band called 'Bannerman'. Their album is due for release on the 13th Sept so I will post more about that next week. Finished work on a great project where I got to create website illustrations - under construction at present. A few more illustrations for Holly Brown are almost at their completion and Im also putting the design together on the new Sing Songs album.

Hoping to have most of that wrapped up by next week as I head on tour with my husband around the south island for 2 weeks with World Vision helping to run a fundraising event called Kids for Kids. So I will be mobile for a wee while armed with sketch book, camera, computer and scanner so I can still get work done. :) Looking forward to the change of scenery!

Semi-Permanent 2010

This weekend I attended the Semi-Permanent Conference in Auckland. There were loads of great speakers and I came away feeling very inspired!
My favourites were Jessica Hische - such beautiful work, Duncan Speakman, Andrew Gordon from Pixar, Dick & Otis Frizzell and Storm Thorgerson.
At the end of the conference Storm Thorgerson asked us to participate in a group photo while holding kiwi fruit like 3D glasses. Oh so fun!
(unfortunately all I have are these blurry iphone photos to show for it! Ah well!)

Holly Brown Artwork

This is the first illustration I was commissioned to create for the walls of Holly Brown. She is titled 'Holly Brown - Lady Gelato' - mixed media. At the opening she came to life - thanks to Cathy Cheng for her excellent make up and hair styling and Jess Davies for her modeling. Quite a close likeness I think!

My second illustration is called 'The First Dance' - mixed media. Inspired by the coffee and gelato characters, the real-life versions walked the streets on opening day promoting Holly Brown, accompanied by Evan Davies on guitar who sang the Holly Brown theme song (more on that later). Thanks Ron and Jess!

Holly Brown - Week One in Hong Kong

So the first week of working here in Hong Kong has been very busy! The aim was to create stock imagery for the cafe Holly Brown.

We started with photographing some colourful looking cup cakes..

followed by a very HOT day shooting in the Tai Po Water front gardens with six very cute children and melting gelato - not to mention dozens of hungry mosquitos!

Next more shots of delicious gelato in waffle cups for the menu...

then coffee, roasted and created by the experts...

We then worked all of this imagery into grids for the walls of the cafe which I will show you images of once they have been installed. The beauty of working in a cafe that specialises in coffee and gelato is that you get to sample both as often as you like - SO YUMMY! The illustrations I created are at the framers as we speak so Ill post them once they have been installed. The opening is set for the 9th July 2010. So If you are near Stanley St, Central, Hong kong this friday do come on by and enjoy the grand opening!

Stuff You Can Wear

I have three pieces in the 'Stuff You Can Wear' Exhibition which opens today 5th June and runs till 18 June 2010. Myself and 16 other artists have created works on wood that can be brought and worn as jewellery. The exhibition is been held at the Combined Artist Studios + Gallery, 11 Bankart St, Raglan. If your at the beach this weekend be sure to check it out!

Here is a peek at my three works..