Free Art Friday is taking place at R Space Gallery, Lisburn, Northern Ireland, today and the piece directly above is one I submitted which will hopefully be going to a nice new home if the postal service carried it there on time. Having not been well for the past month I thought it was time for some positive thinking (with an upside down option for the negatives of course) in the form of splashing about with paint.

These half full/empty designs began with tags and the playing card which I posted to tumblr and has since gained over 100, 000 notes there. I often send the smaller tags in parcels of mail art and Jessica Gowling of Nature’s My Friend has found a wonderful way of distributing these, check out her blog here: https://naturesmyfriend.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/spreading-some-positivity/

The two pieces above, Gone Fishing and Puffin Along are currently in exhibition at Castle Espie. The exhibition opened last Saturday 16th March and runs until the 28th of April.

Castle Espie is part of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust founded in the UK in 1946. It’s located on the Co. Down coast in Northern Ireland, an area I know and love. The shores of Strangford Lough attract many wild birds and animals; they have over 100 exotic and native species of water-birds.

I read somewhere recently that a lot of people will never see a live kingfisher during their lifetime. So far I think I am among that number so it is now on my lengthy ‘to-do’ list.

You can visit the Castle Espie website for more information: http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit/castle-espie/wildlife/nature-reserve

Exhibition details: http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit/castle-espie/whats-on/2013/03/16/nature-through-art/

Back in November I submitted three pieces to Ennistymon Courthouse Gallery’s ‘Trasna III’ exhibition. The exhibition featured both Irish and international artists and ran from December to early January. There were more than 400 works featured, you can see some of these on the gallery blog here:

http://ennistymoncourthousegallery.blogspot.ie/2012/12/trasna-iii.html

My swan sold, which of course I am delighted about, but I can’t say I don’t miss him.

At the end of April @JustinCapps asked me to do some illustrations for his doctoral thesis. As well as being one of my favourite tweeters Justin is also incredibly talented and I was honoured to be asked. The illustrations above featured in the different sections of …That the Children May Learn.

Justin asked me to produce pieces which were ‘stylistically naïve with elements of the dark side’ – an ideal recipe for me to work with.

‘…That the Children May Learn is an interdisciplinary project intended to bring people from different fields and interests together to discuss issues pertinent to the subject of children and war in an open and apolitical setting.’

Visit http://www.justincapps.com/that-the-children-may-learn/ for more information, talks, music and programme.

I’m pre-scribbling this blog with lipstick because of a lack of modern technology. It’s been some time since I was regularly updating the blog thanks to real life and its unfortunate habit of getting in the way.

Early this year I heard about @Secret7s – a wonderful idea which offered artists and musicians the chance to collaborate to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Artists could design a cover for a selected song from one of seven bands – the only rule was to use no band names/song titles, leaving the cover a mystery.

700 covers were then printed and went on sale between the 18th and 22ndof April at Idea Generation Gallery in Shoreditch. The event was a great success – visit the website to see more of that: http://www.secret-7.com/

Above are three covers I designed for DJ Shadow, CSS and Ben Howard, no longer a secret of course and happy in their new homes I hope.

Last October I saw Peter @ArtfulNoiseUK appeal on twitter for someone who would be willing to do some artwork for a mixtape he had put together. At the time I was stressed out thinking about an upcoming exhibition and all I wanted was an excuse to do a watercolour of a gramophone, so I did exactly that and sent it over to him. Peter liked it so much that he commissioned me to do a large version for his home – thumbnail close ups shown above. It took me forever and a day to complete, tiny lines and dots but it was a welcome distraction from all the other works of art I was struggling with. Many thanks to Peter for his patience, a virtue you need when you have any contact with me.

Visit Artful Noise here: http://www.artfulnoise.co.uk/

The first exhibition of ‘Playing with a Full Deck’ happened a few weeks back at Cannon Beach. The project was started by collage artist Liz Cohn and I was lucky enough to get involved, it featured 1324 cards, by Liz who has collaborated on them with 172 artists from all over the world.

You can find photos from the first exhibition here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16055468@N00/sets/72157629195360865/

It’s exciting to be a part of this and watch the cards grow, there are now almost 1400 and the next exhibition will open in April.

More information about the project on Liz Cohn’s website: http://www.lizcohnartstudio.com/lizcohnartstudio.com/about_Playing_with_a_Full_Deck_-_a_mail-art_playing_card_collaboration.html

Above are some cards I have worked on recently and will be sending to Liz for April’s exhibition in Portland, Oregon.

Some recent paintings from the landscape in my dreams. I always dream in colour.

The above have evolved from paintings I’ve been doing over the last year, some are small, splashy wonders but adding all the elements together and coming up with these allowed me to indulge in all my fantasies and have momentary escape from the outside world as I did so.

I’ve been painting these as a mini series for the last while and it seemed appropriate to blog them today. I do hope to continue doing more but I admit I’m running out of instructions. They began with the ‘Eat me’ pill back in the summer and have grown from there. The ‘Drink Me’ bottle of course, is a direct reference to Alice in Wonderland.

I hope you enjoy their humour - something everyone needs on Valentine’s Day.

Over the last few months I have been painting cakes for my friends and enemies on their birthdays. My painted cakes are a lot better and possibly less poisonous than those I bake. I’m thinking of turning these into a huge series, I like the fact that they are never in my possession for long and there are few things more pleasurable than painting cake.