Royal Ulster Academy Annual Show

I was very chuffed that my work 'Irish Lights' was selected for this years Royal Ulster Academy annual exhibition.  It's up in the Ulster Museum at the moment and you can see the exhibition until the start of January.  Even more exciting that being picked to be in the exhibition is the fact that my book has been sold!  I couldn't believe it when my mum phoned me to say she'd seen a red dot by my piece when she was in looking around the exhibition.  Woohoo! There is no other word for it really.

Detail of the book

Another close up

How the book is displayed in the exhibition.

Cheesy pick of me at the opening of the exhibition with someone looking through my book in the background!

Shop Update....

I have finally gotten round to taking photographs of some of my new prints and have now got them up on the shop.  Do take a look.....

You can also buy them in person at the Yard Gallery in Holywood.

Free printables

The other day I finally ran out of all the chutney I had made last summer (mainly because I had given lots of jars away as presents, not just because I had eaten it all!)  Anyway I decided I would make some more but as I the vegetable garden is pretty bare at the moment I headed to the shops to see what vegetable bargains I could find.  In the end I ended up with two bags of carrots for the princely sum of 58p so carrot chutney it was!

After making the chutney I decided the jars deserved a lovely label to go with them and as I am such a lovely person I thought it would be nice to offer it as a free download to all you chutney makers out there.



Just head over to the longshot press site to download the printable file - if you don’t have label paper you could just print on normal paper and cut out and use double sided tape or pritt stick to attach the labels.

I got my labels here.

Some Carrot Chutney recipes…

This is the recipe I used via moneysavingexpert

1 lb—500gm carrots washed and chopped, for a fine chutney grate the carrot.
(I put mine through the food processor grater attachment)
3 oz—88gm brown sugar
3 oz-88gm sultanas
1 pint—510 ml vinegar, malt or white
1 teaspoon mixed spice1 teaspoon ground ginger
12 peppercorns
1 bay leaf
 (I left this out)

Method

Put all the ingredients in a pan. Bring to the boil. Simmer till all the ingredients are tender, stir occasionally. Do not overheat so that the chutney sticks to the pan. Do not put a lid on the pan when cooking the chutney. The chutney should be tender and the liquid syrupy.
Warm chutney jars, use a jug to put the chutney in the jars. Wipe clean, put on wax lids, top off with the cellophane lid and rubberband. Let the chutney cool, label and store.

Other recipes

Delia online

Nigella.com

Bandwidth

I have just completed this illustration for an article about REM by Steven Rainey on the Bandwidth blog.

SpaceCraft

As of the 1st March you can now find a selection of my work in SpaceCraft in Belfast.  It is in the Fountain Centre which is up the escalator on College Street behind Boots.  SpaceCraft is a gallery and shop space dedicated to craft and design in Northern Ireland run by the Craft and Design Collective.  There are a whole host of designers and craftspeople involved - from jewellery designers to ceramicists, textile artists, woodturners and furniture makers and now me!  I have a selection of greetings cards, notecard packs, notebooks and prints for sale, including my new mixtape screenprints.  So if you are in Belfast doing some shopping either for yourself of for a gift then you should definitely pop in and have a look.  As well as the shop space there is also a gallery which hosts regular exhibitions of craft and applied art.

shop spring clean!

Have had a spring clean round at the shop, have removed a lot of the older designs and put up four fresh new card designs.

Also apologies if you have been trying to look at the main site longshotpress.co.uk - it is having some major technical difficulties but normal service should be resumed shortly!

Sketchbooks

One of my new years resolutions this year was to keep a more visual sketchbook.  I usually have a number of sketchbooks on the go but they always seem to end up filled with written notes and scribbly sketches - which can be great but aren’t really that inspiring when you’re flicking through them.  When I do come to drawing more ‘proper’ drawings I seem to end up doing on scraps of drawing paper which then end up in a drawer. In order to inspire myself I took a look at this book which is completely dedicated to the art of the sketchbook.

Its a great book to just flick through for some quick inspiration but if you have a little longer its worth reading the short pieces of writing before each artist’s sketchbook as it really can give you an insight into the drawings - for instance one artist includes a sketchbook in which he has repeatedly drawn images of skulls and he explains that this particular sketchbook was created around the same time that a close family member had died.  A sketchbook can certainly be a very personal thing - no one else necessarily has to see it - you can use it almost like a diary, putting down your inner most thoughts.  Or it can be something more open, perhaps something that may even be exhibited someday or even published.  Either way sketchbooks are undoubtedly a great tool for harnessing creative energy and getting ideas down on paper.

For more sketchbook inspiration check out Book by its cover’s sketchbook series…  or the moleskin group on flickr is also worth a look.

A look at some of the finished prints, so satisfying!

A few years ago I tried screenprinting and really loved it, unfortunately I never kept t up and totally forgot how to do it. Before Christmas I finally got around to having another go when me and fellow MA student Rory screen printed a 2011 calendar. Well I am now totally hooked and spent yesterday creating two more screens! It’s such a change from working digitally, getting your hands dirty and seeing something take shape in front of you, plus you get to use a power washer which is pretty good fun on an otherwise dreary Wednesday morning!

notebooks finally up in my shop!

Before Christmas I designed some A5 blank notebooks featuring my typewriter Illustration.  I kept meaning to add them to my shop and today I have finally done it!  

They come in a pack of three and are priced at a very reasonable £5.00.  If you would like to see some in person then come along to the Black Market at the Black Box in Hill Street, Belfast where I will be selling a fine selection of stationery on Sunday 6th February.

new look for website

I have decided that my website needs a complete overhaul, haven’t decided exactly how it should look yet but felt I had to do something right away even just in the interim… a bit like spring cleaning I guess!

Here are some before and after shots…

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Okay so it’s not exactly drastic but I think it definitely looks cleaner and more sophisticated.

Love is in the air...

To beat the January blues I have been working on some lovely cheerful Valentine’s Day Cards.  You can check out the collection in my shop. Why not treat someone special in your life, or surprise a secret crush and show them not only how you feel but also how stylish your are!