"Mrs Christmas Gets Ready" an illustration from "Mrs Christmas" pub Hamish Hamilton 1990. Happy Christmas!

English Garden in high Summer

Beginners Watercolour Classes at The Little Art School

SWillustrator Penny Ives is a popular children's book illustrator with many years experience.
She is offering beginners watercolour classes at 'The Little Art School' in the new 44AD Artspace
Penny will be covering topics such as mixing colours and choosing papers.

Classes start on Friday 12th September 10-12 noon or Monday 15th September 2-4pm
Cost of £20 a session to include materials to get you started.

Illustrations and Nature studies by Penny Ives

Swillustrator Penny Ives exhibited her beautiful illustrations and detailed nature studies at Bath Artist Studio's Gallery this weekend as part of the Newbridge Arts Trail.

Penny also treated her visitors to her delicious home made cakes!

Open Studios, Hertfordshire in September 2013

SW Illustrators Penny Ives and Frances Cony will be exhibiting at the Open Studio of Textiles Artist Jackie Bennett.  The Herts Visual Artists  (HVA) Open Studios are open during September 2013.

For further details, see:  http://www.hvaf.org.uk/Open-Studios.


Jackie's studio near Watford will be open every weekend in September, starting today: Saturday 7 September 2013.

For further information, see her blog:  http://osjackiebennett.blogspot.co.uk/

Jackie Bennett will be exhibiting needle-felted figures and brooches, as well as ceramics and cards...

Frances Cony will be exhibiting prints and mugs...

Penny Ives will be exhibiting prints...

Artwork & photos  © the artists

Comments on THE ART OF STORYTELLING Exhibition, The Pound, Corsham

When Penny Ives and I collected our leftover art from The Pound 10 days ago, we were directed to look at the Comments Book.  Here are some of the comments - some by children; some by adults, apparently.

A selection of the Comments on The Art of Storytelling exhibition at The Pound, Corsham, in which the SW Illustrators: Penny Ives, Jane Veveris Callan, Anna Popescu, Nadine Wickenden & Frances Cony along with non-SW Illustrator Sir Quentin Blake (and others) exhibited.  (CLICK on image TO ENLARGE).

Private View - THE ART OF STORYTELLING Exhibition, The Pound, Corsham SN13 9HX

The exhibition The Art of Storytelling opened on Friday 7 June with a Private View.  SW Illustrators: Nadine Wickenden, Anna Popescu, Penny Ives, Frances Cony & Jane Veveris Callan are exhibiting along with illustrator-in-residence Chris Dunn, James Stayte & Sir Quentin Blake.  Exhibition is on until 20 July 2013.

Sir Quentin Blake's work

Jane Ververis Callan's work

Browsers

Frances Cony's work

Anna Popescu's work

Penny Ives's work

Nadine Wickenden's work

For further details: see The Pound's website: http://www.poundarts.org.uk/pound/EventDetails.aspx?artid=2100 

and the post below:  http://swillustrators.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-art-of-storytelling-exhibition.html


Photos © June Goulding

THE ART OF STORYTELLING Exhibition, The Pound, Corsham (8 June - 20 July)

The "selection of South West Illustrators" includes SW Illustrators: Nadine Wickenden, Anna Popescu, Penny Ives, Frances Cony & Jane Veveris Callan.

There is also real original artwork by Sir Quentin Blake and The Pound's illustrator-in-residence Chris Dunn.  Chris will be doing some workshops during his residency.  See The Pound's website for further info:  http://www.poundarts.org.uk/Pound/aboutus.aspx

The Art of Storytelling exhibition is part of The Corsham Summer Festival (13-16 July) so there will undoubtedly be other things to see and do in the pretty town of Corsham, a few miles east of Bath, if you should choose to visit the exhibition.   The Pound has a cafe, which serves good-sized slices of delicious cake!
 

Relaunch of RABBIT PIE by Penny Ives (SW Illustrators)

"Rabbit Pie" was originally published in hard back by Puffin Children's Books.


Sadly for me it went out of print but luckily, Child's Play bought the title for their list.

Here it is as a board book with some of my rabbits. (Out of interest, the one with the carrot on his head goes round and round in a slightly manic way if the carrot is given a tug).


"Rabbit Pie" is available at book shops and on Amazon.

Written and illustrated by Penny Ives

Published 2013 by Child's Play in the UK and Barnes and Noble US.

Celestine & the Penguins available on i-player for TWO (& a half) more days!!!

Go to BBC i-player to watch Lulu tell this story: Celestine and the Peguins by Penny Ives. QUICKLY!!!

Lulu reads Celestine and the Penguins on CBeebies 3 January

LULU will be reading "Celestine and the Penguins"  by SW Illustrator Penny Ives on 3rd January 2012 CBeebies Bedtime Hour between 6 and 7.  The story is usually about 6.45pm.

The book "Celestine and the Penguins" is available from/through all good bookshops, as well as Amazon.  The publisher is Templar and the ISBN: 978-1840115369.

See also "Celestine Drama Queen" by Penny Ives (Templar, ISBN 978-1840115611 (pb); 978-1840115062 (hb)).

Celestine and the Penguins on CBeebies

 

 

Penny Ives picture book 'Celestine and the Penguins' is featured on the BBC's 'CBeebies Bedtime Stories'! Story read by the lovely Holly Willoughby.

Published by Templar Publishing, it can be viewed here until 13th January:

Celestine and the Penguins

SWillustrators at Bologna Book Fair 2009

Some of our talented illustrators will be attending

Bologna Children's Book Fair

(the fair runs from Mon 23rd - Thu 26th March 2009)

Here is a sample of artwork from those attending.

Please contact these illustrators directly if you would like to arrange
an appointment to see more of their work during the fair.
Click on their names to be redirected to their websites to see more images.

"Mrs Chicken" pastel on coloured paper

Penny Ives

Penny will be at the Bologna Children's Book Fair
on Tues 24th and Wed 25th March
please Email Penny for an appointment

if you would like to see more of her work

"Fauna of the Polar Regions" digital

Richard Deverell

email Richard to arrange an appointment to see more of his work

"Uncle Lion and Little Tiger" watercolour

Paula Bowles

Paula will be at the Bologna Children's Book Fair
on Wed 25th and Thur 26th March

email Paula to arrange an appointment to see more of her work

Bag Lady Bags - ecobags of style and charm created for local shoppers in Bath.

Two cheerful new eco-bags are currently gracing the shoulders of Bath shoppers.
The jute shopping bags celebrate Bath’s thriving farmer’s market (the first in the UK) and the busy high street of Moorland Road.

The brain behind the bags is Penny Ives, a children's author and illustrator who has lived happily in Oldfield Park, Bath for nineteen years - The Bag Lady.
Penny is a keen supporter of shopping locally and feels increasingly dismayed at seeing discarded grey and tattered bags waving dismally from our trees and riverbanks: “Maddened on hearing of animals strangled and choked by plastic, I felt I must stop talking and do something to halt our addiction to the ubiquitous plastic bag.”
Bath Farmers' Market at Green Park every Saturday morning is a wonderful place to buy everything from locally grown vegetables to dark sumptuous chocolate cake, freshly baked bread and biscuits, river salmon, soft cheeses, apple juice and cider or squirrel and venison. But until recently the market has had no bag of its own.
The bag lady, now on a mission, invited children's illustrator Margaret Chamberlain to create a jolly design to capture the essence of this wonderful market. Their bag is strong, roomy, reasonably priced (£3.50), easy on the shoulder with soft wide cotton handles --- and it stylishly shows off your support for the market plus your eco-awareness as you walk around Bath!

Visit the Bag Lady’s stall at Green Park Farmer’s Market in Bath any Saturday to bag yourself some proper eco-credentials and support local food shopping at its finest.

Ian Dicks (currently a cartoonist for The Daily Mail) has also worked with Penny to design a jute bag for Moorland Road, a thriving local shopping area in Oldfield Park, Bath. Ian's witty design shows a little everyman figure shopping happily in his local high street. The £3.50 bags are available from eighteen different shops and businesses – you’ll find them everywhere from the pet shop (great for getting heavy dog food home safely) to the chemist and the book shop.
Buying a Bag Lady bag is a great way to show support for local businesses and shops as well as thinking globally about your best choices for the planet as a consumer.
The bags are sustainably sourced with jute the natural fibre of choice for its low environmental impact and are your way of giving financial support to small farmers and factory workers in India and Bangladesh.

Sustainably sourced with impeccable green credentials –
· Canby bags are fairly traded, carbon neutral and use natural materials instead of oil-based synthetics.
· Jute is virtually an organic textile and a crop with little environmental impact. It is a natural fibre - a tropical cousin of the European lime or linden tree. Jute is cultivated on small farms in the Ganges and Brahmaputra valleys of Bangladesh and India where traditional, nearly organic farming methods are used .
· The company runs a strict ethical trading policy which ensures no undesirable working practices, no sweatshops, no child or bond labour.

Please contact Penny Ives for any further information on the Bag Lady bags. Penny may be emailed through SWillustrators. Use the 'contact' link at the top right of this blog.