Ancient Sweet Chestnut Tree

An ancient sweet chestnut tree in Kensington Gardens.

The Woodland Trust has constructed an ambitious database mapping the UK's 'ancient' trees. Users can type in their postcode and locate the wise old statesmen in their area.

Garden Sunshine

Another sunny-day sketch.

Resurrection Sketches

I thought it about time I began updating the blog again. Here are a couple of gouache sketches from one of those sunny days, sitting in the woods. 

Advent Day 6

Street People

Sketching folk from a coffee shop, reminds me of being on my Foundation course.

Happy Monsterday!

Grant Museum of Zoology

Seems stupid that I'd never been to the Grant Museum of Zoology (at UCL down by Euston) until monday. It reminded me a lot of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, but with a purely zoological focus. The collection was established in 1828 and has a stunning array of skeletons and jar-preserved animal specimens, including an intact Tasmanian Tiger skeleton, a jar of moles and a human or two. I sketched some skeletons.

Grant Museum of Zoology

Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Exhibition

Went back down for a proper look at the Self Portrait exhibition down at Kings Place Gallery (next to Kings Cross, the building in which the Guardian and Observer are based). The show fills the huge lower floors of Kings Place, as well as the actual gallery itself. There are some cracking portraits on show, although I felt the exhibition was a little bloated at 170-odd paintings- half of that would probably be more comfortable.


The exhibition is on every day until the 25th November. And congrats to the winner of the competition, Celia Paul.


My portrait: I think the wonky board looks alright in the end:

Some of my favourite portraits from the show (links at the bottom):


Tony Noble's Self Portrait, Red Brick Mill Studio, a brilliant acrylic piece:

Andrew Whamond's frank and expressive Self Portrait Standing:

Gilly Lovegrove, Untitled:

I saw an Alison Lambert solo exhibition in Soho a few years ago. She produces stunning large-scale portraits in charcoal, pastel and layers of torn paper, giving the pieces a deep relief and wonderfully sculptural topography. It's like the portrait has actually come from within the paper. Fantastic draughtsmanship (draughtswomanship?) too. Really worth seeing in person. Self-Portrait:

 Sheena Russell's Red Portrait:

Artist links:

Tony Noble

Andrew Whamond

Gilly Lovegrove

   Alison Lambert

   Sheena Russell

Backs of Heads

The fun to be had on public transport.

Tents

At the Big Chill back in August. A little summer flashback.

Special Delivery Stamp

I'd never seen (or never noticed) one of these before. Nice.

Framing

This painting of mine will appear in the Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Competition exhibition at Kings Place Gallery in London, from the 14th October to 25th November.

I say tomato

Felt I had to get outside for some sketching in the garden on a gorgeous day like today. Didn't go far though- painted tomatoes in the garden.

Illustration Now! 4 Feature

I was fortunate to be featured in the new Taschen book Illustration Now! 4, edited by Julius Wiedemann.
My contributor copies came through the other day, and as with all Taschen fare the book is beautifully made and designed, with superb production values.
The book features some stunning work by illustrators from Brighton to Bogota. I'd strongly recommend adding it to your bookshelf.

Birdtree/ Lonely Cockatoo

This is based on the idea of a lonely, bland, cockatoo-type bird, surrounded by more attractive, colourful and popular avian specimens. It originally came about from sketching from the TV while watching Frasier. Just for fun really.

Little Runners

These are Pat's running trainers. They're still pretty clean...
Sorry it's a pretty nasty quality image- just wanted to photograph it quickly.

Lakes

Some sketches from my girlfriend and I's trip up to the Lake District last month. First bit of watercolouring for a good while. 

I've got a few more of these, but unfortunately I'm having to use a different scanner, which seems to be incapable of producing a decent image.

Sunflowers

These were a bit droopier than I'd've liked by the time I got round to painting 'em.

Also...

...have a look at my spot on Creative Boom today:

http://www.creativeboom.co.uk/inspire/lookbook/illustrator-ben-mills/

Teapoles

This is shipped over from my Facebook page from a week or so back.

The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust rear poison dart frog tadpoles in rebush tea because apparently its antioxidant properties reduce the risk of fungal infection and disease.