Inspiration: Nature. For Father's Day we went on a two hour nature walk as a family ... It was such a nice walk around the river with a cool break under a shaded tree ... I took some of the shots from our walk and made these...

I made a couple variations of this photograph of crows sitting on a wire ...



And combined this photograph with another I shot the other day ...


And here are some flowers I picked up at the Farmers' Market this morning ...

A couple pictures I took outside of Bragg Creek today - a sunny pasture with llamas and horses ...



Check out chealseArt ... Chelsea Groves makes bird art (collages + linocuts) Here's a sample of her collage work:

(wedding wrens 11 x 14)

Jessie Chorley's Mon Marriage is a beautiful vintage + antique inspired wedding collection. Here is a selection from her wedding range:

I especially like this piece, silk corsage ...

I love the lampshades of LUSH DESIGNS. Watch the video below of Marie and Maria talking about their work...I love these ladies!



Garden of delight is MARIEKE VAN DER BRUGGEN's graduation project (2008)

Imagine a world where nothing is what it is...
A world that stimulates your fantasy and let you taste the sweetness of paradise.

Garden of delight is an inverted nature element of candy that spawns, like a sculpture, from the ceiling. This object exist of abstract branches, twigs and leaves in different colours and tastes that can be picked and eaten.

Garden of delight is an event on it’s own in a shop, gallery, restaurant. The consumer feels like Eve in paradise when they pick a leave.

BEATRIZ MARTIN VIDAL's portraiture work is amazing, especially birdchildren. Shown below is one of her works.

Finally, check out emma's designblogg (her personal guide of stockholm + design)

Just some beautiful and inspiring things I stumbled across this week...

Saffron Craig



Domestic Construction



Emily Sutton



Valerie Hammond

This cabinet pictured below is called Monster... I love it! Ellen Seegers designed this unique piece together with Jolanda Slegers.


Bloesem Kids is probably the best blog for children's design, everything on here is absolutely fantastically adorable!

This bamboo bird mobile by petit collage is so cute...


Graphic designer and illustrator Tutti Shafir makes beautiful and cute prints...

Free Spirit Spheres

"There are a lot of trees here on Vancouver Island although the majority of them are second or third growth. The majority of first growth forests have been logged. Even when city folk move out into the country the first thing they do is clear at least a 30 m square piece of land to build their house on. Then they build a concrete foundation and up from there. The destruction mounts quickly.

I wanted something different. To enable people to move into and inhabit the forest without taking it down first. To live in and among the trees and to use them for a foundation. In this way the foundation depends on maintaining a healthy ecosystem. It also gives me back a magic environment right outside my front door. Like a bird in a nest."

-Tom (Inventor, Manufacturer and Distributor of Free Spirit Spheres)

Some more illustrations I am playing around with - here I combined an illustration of a bird with some organic patterns ...

Graniph Tshirts Store is a clothing company that accepts Tshirt designs from artists. The designs are incredible and can be viewed on their website. They are accepting designs from Februay 1st to March 31st 2008, so I may be submitting one!

Here are some of the artists whose work I really admired from the Graniph Tshirts Store. I linked to their Tshirt designs and to their websites as well.

Rui Tenreiro or here and his tshirt designs

Florence Manlik and her wallpaper and her tshirt designs

Kev Speck's tshirt designs

Karen Ingram and her tshirt designs


I really admire the work of Daisy Fletcher. Her work is so delicate and pretty. I am a sucker for illustrations with birds and flowers. I love that her detailed pencils sketches have splashes of colour only in certain spots, like in the pattern on a skirt, in the flower, or in the birds feathers.

Stephen Crowhurst is an Artist, Illustrator and Surface Designer. His website HELLO HELLO has nice big pictures of his work. I really enjoy his work because he incorporates so much pattern and repetition into his designs.

And here are yet more little illustrations I have finished, these are all inspired by Valentine's and Spring... I think I may take a break and actually do some painting...

As promised, here are the latest little illustrations I have been working on. I finished these today, and I am still working on more, so check back soon.

I always thought I disliked 'nature' paintings, but now I am finding that this subject is really my most favourite! I am a sucker for any works with birds, branches, and really any reference to nature in it. And this is why Jen Garrido is one of my favourite painters at the moment. I love her use of colour and her process of building layers with paint and then blocking in the shapes using large white negative space. Here are a couple of her paintings.


Jen Garrido's can't see you


Jen Garrido's candy color cradle

Another artist I really admire is Saskatoon-based artist Matthew Feyld. He is so creative and so dedicated to his work. I love seeing his work pop up here and there around Saskatoon, he leaves his mark everywhere it seems! He has amazing style!


Matthew Feyld's bird returning bird

I also have to mention the cutest little shop ever! It is Red Shoes Home Goods. I saw these candles on the website, and they look good enough to eat! I like how the store-owner is so creative herself, she is one crafty lady!

Winter not only restricts fashion, to wearing thick sweaters for months on end, it also inspires it! Like Canada, fashion in Helsinki, Finland is full of boots, coats, and warm hats! I found this crazy website HEL LOOKS, which features tons of photographs of street fashion in Helsinki. It was started as a hobby project, but progressed, and now they have been taking pictures in clubs and on the streets of Helsinki for the past two years. Here is a sample of some of the great wears on HEL LOOKS...



They also feature a little blurb about each person they photograph, usually telling what inspires them in their fashion, so this is a great site for any fashion-enthusiast.

Also visit Jacqui Oakley's website. I absolutely love her illustrations! Her portraits are amazing, and I also love her one illustration of bugs. Her work is so grainy, and colourful, and nice!

Now you can buy art not only because you love it, but for a good cause as well. At pretty:darn:swell, they have a gallery full of artists' prints for sale. When viewing each artwork, you can see which selected charity the proceeds will be going to from that sale. Their mission is to raise money for charitable organizations and to promote emerging artists. Sounds good to me! Here is one print from their gallery. It is laura e. horning's 'the blackbird's migration'.