Holdfast:
- A root-like structure that anchors a seaweed to a substrate (such as rocks or other surfaces).
- Continue to believe in or adhere to a principle or idea.

THE EXHIBITION
Sep 1st - Dec 14th 2025
HOLDFAST at Kilmartin Museum is a special exhibition that brings together work by six artists, inspired by a shared love of the sea and the life it supports. In autumn 2024 we took part in a snorkelling and underwater drawing residency based in the Argyll Coast and Islands Hope Spot. It was an incredible experience trying to make marks while underwater!

All our artworks here tell different yet intertwined stories of this precious and often mysterious marine environment. The work originates from one anchor point (the holdfast): a shared hope that we can learn to love and look after our seas and protect them from the multiple threats that face them.

FRAGMENTS
My artwork centred on three fragmented comics created from torn rag paper pentagons and ink illustrations. The arrangement and form of the comics was inspired by barnacles and limpets near the shore; collected together but also existing separately as a complete entity.

Golden Threads winds together the underwater experience and Gaelic faerie folklore through a narrative that forks and deviates in the middle. I hand stitched a golden thread running through the entire metre and a half artwork. I concentrated on simple images to tell the story and used pressed seaweed to add colour and texture to some panels. It shows most clearly what we did on the residency, including an introduction to Gaelic as it related to the natural world.

Hornwrack is a comic arranged to look like a frond of seaweed or scrap of hornwrack, designed to be read from top to bottom, taking the reader deeper into the realms of discovery. I used actual pressed horn wrack in the comic and nearby in the exhibition there is more for visitor to touch and look at closely. The comic details an encounter and subsequent voyage of learning I went on, in conversation with the marine world.

Lastly, Cannot Stay is the longest of the three comics and stretches well over a metre and a half, dipping in the middle as I travel from the shore, explore the depths and rise back up to the air. It is concerned with the feelings and emotions I experienced underwater; the fear, amazement and weird creatures I encountered. I included the shell of a sea urchin for visitors to see, as well as using tracing paper to create the otherworldly scenes below the waves.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A FRAGMENTS ZINE OR POSTCARD

While creating the comics, I got to play a lot (very important) with materials, ideas and images, working hard to portray the feeling of those first snorkelling experiences on the Hope Spot residency. The writing usually comes first, followed by building images around segments of text, leaving some panels with no text at all. I like to let the images and the objects say something on their own too. Hopefully these comics inspire you to explore the sea and shore. 

I also exhibit a selection of pressed seaweeds, some fixed to the paper used for pressing and others preserved behind glass, backlit by the light from the windows. I want to allow visitors to see the seaweeds as they are in the water, full of movement, colour and incredible shapes. I left a lot of ‘beach treasure’ in the exhibition rooms too, so visitors can handle crab claws, seaweeds, horn wrack, shells, stones and other flotsam.

FREE ZINE
With content from the other artists I designed a folded zine to be available for free at the launch event and some time after. It contained images of some of the artwork, a statement from each artist and information about the residency and museum.

WORKSHOPS
To accompany the exhibition there is a programme of workshops in September and October 2025. Viola and myself led two art and animation workshops for primary age children and Jamie is also running one for projections using microscopes.

ARTISTS
Rosie Cunningham: illustration and pressed seaweed 
Emma Baker: mosaics and felt
Liz Willoughby: sculpture
Viola Madau: animation
Jamie Wardrop: digital art
Tamsin Cunningham: drawing, painting and silk

HOPE SPOTS
Hope Spots are special places, vital for the ocean’s health, linked by the international organisation Mission Blue. This growing network includes the Galapagos Islands and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Collectively, Hope Spots are creating a global wave of community support for ocean conservation.

Spring-Autumn 2025

The Wellcome Centre for Anti-Infectives Research (WCAIR) in Dundee installed Giovanna MacKenna as the poet in residence. Giovanna brought me on board to produce some new images and comics inspired by her research and writing. Much of her writing was informed by workshops and conversations with scientists and locals. 

We met with several community groups and scientists in Dundee to investigate the impact of health and wellbeing on their lives as well as their relationship to the research happening at WCAIR. We were looking for links between scientists working in Life Sciences Building and the local communities in the shadow of the work happening there. I produced live illustration in those sessions that later informed work Giovanna and I collaborated on. 

The final work took the form of two comics; one featuring a scientists entire career from qualification to retirement, detailing the repetition and continual work with very little ’success’ over decades. The second sought to humanise scientists by highlighting that despite their highly specialised work, they all have hopes, dreams, families and their own stories, as we all do. There were some additional images to complement these longer form narratives; a satirical comment on the luxury of health (inspired by a well known luxury brand) and other images to highlight particular research. 

The ultimate goal of the project was to display these collaborative works outside the Life Sciences building as well as in the communities we worked with. 

Autumn 2024 - Spring 2025

These are not illustrations, but rather seaweed that I have collected from the West coast of Scotland, pressed and now using the flattened, dried seaweed as inspiration for further work. They are so beautiful in their own right that I wanted to put them here!

I hope to do more experimenting with the seaweed, finding out more about different species and their properties one they have been dried. This collection showcases wrack siphon weed, sea lettuce, perhaps, and my favourite, Irish moss.

[2024]

Working to a brief set by American sketch comedy performers and writers Lanee’ Sanders and Tessa Flannery, I created this image for their Toronto Sketch Festival show.

The theme of the show is ‘boats’, so I have taken inspiration from the past, drawing on Viking art influences, paring down the colour to simple black and white for impact. They wanted their faces to be recognisable (tick) and silly (double tick) but there are also lots of items from their comedy sketches in the design, as well as the face of their comedy assistant, John Ross.

The image is used for show promotion both online and onscreen in the participating venue. I really enjoyed this one - it was fun to play with minimal colour and a different style.

Feb 2024

An ongoing work in progress, Picturing Garnethill is a community project I am running on behalf of Garnethill Multicultural Centre in my local area of Glasgow. I am funding the project (read more here) by approaching multiple local businesses and organisations who are sponsoring the project by paying for their building to be illustrated by me. Here is a selection including Sprigg, the Wee Curry Shop, the Tenement House, CCA, the Garage and the GFT. The Garnethill Synagogue, Paint and Mortar and St Aloysius Church are still to come.

This creative project started with some small community workshops in the Multicultural Centre and the goal of creating new bespoke curtains for the Multicultural Centre’s upstairs hall. I have collected lots of drawings, memories and community input and starting to build up some designs using all the community artwork. Particular mention to the cetre’s senior and children’s art classes who have submitted wonderful work - watch this space!

Spring 2023 - 2024

In preparation for his memoir about being a Scottish boy scout several decades ago, writer David Mackay commissioned a series of joyful line work illustrations to accompany his writing. Using a fine pen, I took his descriptions of several scenes of youthful mishaps and mayhem and interpreted them for the benefit of readers. From being chased by sharks and bees to illegally driving a double decker bus across some fields, there is much to enjoy.

Creating the images was fun, in part because the source material is amusing, but David provided me with his own charming sketches that led me to the style for the final illustrations.

David says:
Being a Boy Scout was a great adventure for many youngsters. Now, in their twilight years, those bygone days provide fond memories – and hair-raising tales! That was the case for the 131 Glasgow Troop and its old boys who contributed their daft stories to the memoir - Make Sure He Changes His Underpants!’

Some of the stories were so wondrous that they needed to be shown and Rosie Cunningham stepped in to provide the illustrations for the book.

Autumn 2023

A selection of recent sketchy illustrations, mostly of Glasgow places and people. I made them using either reed pens / straws or brushes with black ink. Some have added watercolour or paint stick colour.

Summer / Autumn 2022 - Spring 2023

“I was amazed at your creativity and ability to synthesise really complex bits of information into manageable parts!” - Ruth

As part of the development of Crossreach’s transitional care service for young people, development officers have been running workshops over several months with young people with lived experience of the care system. During those sessions there is free rein to redesign the care system around the person in care from their perspective. Using the masses of information gathered from these multiple sessions, Ruth Forster, the lead on the project welcomed my input and creative assistance to begin to tease out the most important insights and proposals.

I was brought on board to bring life to all the research they had been working on and to synthesise it into a series of explanatory posters. These posters will tour Crossreach care services and gather feedback from all the young people who provided their input. The most engaging element of the project for me was the insights from young people about transitioning in and out of care. We took the quotes directly from the sessions and made their voices the focal point of each poster.

Using a whole spectrum of colour, the journey through the seven posters takes the viewer from a red (angry) mire of bad experiences right through the hot colours of small interventions and changes (orange, yellow…) through larger scale care changes (greens) and cooling into the calming, holistic approaches (blue) that require complete systemic change. The final poster gives an optimistic view of the potential future with these new changes in place.

In choosing so many colours to express the journey of the transitions from essentially worse to better, I kept the palette of each individual poster limited to three shades of the same colour; a deep, rich colour for the quote so that remains the focal point and then two more muted shades to give energy to the surrounding images. The images are drawn by hand in ink and digitally coloured for maximum punchiness!

Summer 2022

In early 2021 the Friends of Garnethill Green Spaces commissioned a new artwork for the local park to mark its status as a designated ‘Urban Quiet Space’. Choosing a round stonework panel for the medium, I created a surface design to be carved into it.

The design is based on an ironwork version of the Glasgow Coat of Arms (featuring a bird, bell, tree and a fish with a ring in its mouth) that used to hang in the main stairwell of the Mackintosh Building at the Glasgow School of Art. Aside from the bell, the entire Mackintosh designed artwork was lost in the second fire. Using photographic resources in the art school archives, I built up schematics of the original artwork and used it to influence my simpler two dimensional version.

Garnethill Park is the planned final setting for the stone artwork. Now 30 years old, the park was originally landscaped as a Chinese garden with waterways, boulders and planted bamboo. Continuing this theme, I wanted the design to reference the original ironwork of circles, but also link it to water ripples in a pool. My design hangs on a series of concentric circles emanating from the central bell, rather like sound waves. The bird swoops below it and the fish swims above, both drawn using curves from the circles which act as the crown of a tree. The various elements are held together with the abstract trunk of the tree.

The stonework was created by Cruikshanks of Kirkintilloch and now awaits its new home in Garnethill Park.

Spring 2022

‘Doric Nursery Rhymes for Loons an Quines’ is a children’s picture book I worked on in 2021. It features thirty-five well known nursery rhymes, each beautifully translated into Doric by Gordon M Hay. The author tasked me with creating a full colour, full page illustration for every rhyme, some as double page spreads. Every page contains hand-drawn colour pencil illustrations by myself (Rosemary Cunningham), painted with watercolours to bring the book to life. Each rhyme contains its own characters and narratives within the cheery, expressive colour scheme of sharp blues, rich greens, punchy oranges and bold yellows.

The Doric branch of Scots language is spoken in the North East of Scotland and has a charm all it’s own. Many of these rhymes are translated with a North East twist, so look out for some surprises along the way! Gordon M Hay also included useful four page glossary at the back of the book detailing all the Doric words used in the text. Amongst the lists of words are some memorable moments from the rest of the book.

This is the second minority language children’s book I have illustrated after the first (The Nicht Afore Christmas) was nominated for ‘Scots Bairnies Book o the Year 2021’ in the Scots Language Awards.

‘Doric Nursery Rhymes’ is available direct from the author, in Waterstones Aberdeen (and by request in other branches) and right here in my own online shop.

Commissioned by the Glasgow School of Art for its wider access programme. The map is designed to be altered over time, to show all the art school buildings, but also as an informal aid to navigate the area for visitors and new students. More places can be added or removed as required. It has since been co-opted by other community organisations like the Garnethill Multicultural Centre.

Drawn in pencil and inks, the colours are bright and cheery, the map has a relaxed and casual appearance, especially because of the creative scale, addition of illustrated local buildings and the mini map of Garnethill Park within the map itself. The point of the map is to be welcoming and usable – giving Garnethill its own unique voice and referencing the strong artistic community in the area.

[Spring 2020]

Queen Baby is coming home...  The whole castle is ready to meet her, but is her new sister? 

The second picture book illustrated by Rosemary Cunningham, ‘Queen Baby’ features a cast of diverse characters with a dash of humour for children aged 2-6, or even younger. Buy it here. Helen Comerford is the author of the successful young adult 'Afterlife' series and ‘Queen Baby’ spearheads her emergence into children's literature. She is passionate about increasing diversity in books for children.

Illustrated in pencil and rich inks, it covers 32 pages with lovely endpapers and even illustrated dedications to two little people we love. A truly collaborative effort, Helen helped craft the concepts and ideas for the illustration and was there every step of the way.

Made with small children in mind, the images are simple, rich with lots of character and a little touch of the medieval! The rhyming narrative is easy for children - and their adults - to enjoy reading aloud.

Autumn 2020
Published December 2020

The classic festive poem, ‘A Visit from St.Nicholas’ by Clement Clarke Moore has been imaginatively translated into Scots by author, Irene McFarlane, and illustrated by Rosemary Cunningham - that’s me!

Using colouring pencils and drawing inks with brushes, I was able to create rich and colourful backdrops for this new translation. The characterisation of Faither Yuletide (Santa), his reindeer and sleigh are all bound up in traditional Celtic pattern and details from the medieval period. I wanted to ensure we stayed true to the recognised idea of Father Christmas, but offer something clearly and classically Scottish without resorting to tartan sterotypes. His sleigh was inspired by the traditional viking longboats built each year to celebrate Up Helly Aa in Shetland.

The Nicht Afore Christmas is published by Tippermuir Books, based in Perth and is available direct from them or from my online shop.

Summer 2020
Published November 2020

The Touring Network celebrated its 20th year of promoting and supporting rural Scottish arts tours in the highlands and islands in 2018. To celebrate and commemorate the occasion, I worked with them to design and illustrate a map themed birthday card showcasing real venues across the country, alongside incidental illustrations of the kind of work they support.

The eagle eyed might spot venues such as Mareel on Shetland and halls and theatres from Cove to Cromarty, Easdale to Eigg. Musical instruments, dancers, communities and tents all serve to literally illustrate the work that The Touring Network exists to support. There’s even an appearance of their upholstered chairs by Fun Makes Good!

The design is hand drawn in ink and coloured digitally according to The Touring Network’s visual identity - the triangular land is a nod to their geometric logo too. The A5 folded cards were printed in the UK with eco inks and distributed to all folk in their address book. The illustrated map also formed part of a travelling exhibition that toured Scotland.

2018

The 100 days project is an instagram event in which users are encouraged to create something new every day for 100 consecutive days. Phewf. This series began in early April 2017 and the expectation was to choose a theme for the content and then start creating it. In order to learn more and to celebrate the role of women in our current world, I chose #100DaysOfHerstory. I kept the theme theme very open, trying to be as intersectional and diverse as I can. It's a lot of research and drawing - especially hard at the weekends! 

I used to do a similar self-initiated project called 'daily drawings' back from 2011-2014 which relied on participation from social media every weekday and took about an hour for each illustration. That process resulted in designs like the Glasgow and Edinburgh Alphabets and the Amazing Carlisle Facts.

This time the drawings have taken their own shape as black and white images in pencil, illustrations of particular women, groups or concepts throughout history - or Herstory. I encouraged people to get in touch with their own selections, they went on a big list and I drew a selection. The final set of 100 is available as a print and accompanying information booklet in my shop. The booklet tells you a wee bit about each image and why I selected it to draw.

2017 - 2018

Grow 73 are a community led organisation in Rutherglen, Glasgow. They have taken on much of the upkeep of Overtoun Park in the area and in 2017, secured funding to create some public artworks for the park. As part of this project, they employed a storyteller, sculptor and myself as mapmaker to create and then document the new artworks.

The ‘Ruglen Ropewalk’ is a sculpture trail in Overtoun Park touching on themes around art, local heritage and the environment. The heritage inspired sculptures were made by Rob Mulholland, based on stories gathered by storyteller Amanda Edmiston, assisted by locals including children from several local schools. The trail is accompanied by this illustrated map which highlights the main stories and outdoor activities based around the sculptures.

The map was created based on the specific needs of the project, designed to be amended in future (in the case of additional artwork installations) and made to be fun to look at, but also practical to use. The front design has a fun, colourgul map and the reverse has activities and stories from local people.

2018

2018 marked 450 years since Glasgow’s Battle of Langside. I was approached by the local community who were producing a commemorative booklet as part of a series of events to mark the anniversary of the battle. The map was designed as a fold out page and can actually be used as a walking guide.

The main focus of the map is to show the various sites of battle, despite the fact that the open landscape of yore has now become built-up urban landscape. The clear colour map shows the current street layout and the ‘ghost’ figures depict the style of dress, battle positions and type of artillery used at the time. Both the present day and the historical battlegrounds can be viewed simulataneously. For context, Mary Queen of Scots is shown overseeing the conflict (not as a ghost) as she was purported to. The design references a painting of the events that hangs in a local library, a nod to the heritage artefacts that survive.

2017

26 letters, 128 animals... Welcome to the Animalphabet!

After tackling architecture and history through the alphabet, I wanted to try my hand at animals. There are thousands of Animal Alphabets out there, but I've given the genre a different spin. This colourful illustrated alphabet of animals has several critters making up each individual letter. Some are from the sea, the air and the land, or a mixture. There are insects, fish, birds, mammals and everything in between - even a dinosaur or two appear on the special 'extinct' letter.

The Animalphabet was always created with a long concertina design in mind. I researched each creature and the reverse of the printed concertina has a couple of facts about each one. 

You can buy a concertina, print and even have a name custom ordered in my shop. 

October 2017

I ran a six-week series of workshops for young people at Glasgow South West Carers Centre with theatre based company, Terra Incognita. I was tasked with facilitating workshops that would result in a proposal for a new statue for Glasgow. We began with the idea of statues as celebrating heroic deeds.

Our journey was a process of identifying what a hero is. The young people came up with solid, clearly defined words; powerful, love, safe, interactive, fun, inspirational, unique. Throughout the workshops, we used drawing as a way of communicating ideas and concepts and certain themes began to emerge. A major turning point was the idea that everyone is a hero in their own way, so the statue had to be accessible for everyone.

Playing with messy materials and large-scale models, we tried to work out how to encourage people to empathise with us and interact with our heroic words. Our statue evolved into an igloo. Outside, a hard shell for protection (powerful and safe) and inside, a soft, (fun) bouncy world with activities and diversions (interactive, inspirational). The idea is that anyone inside the cocoon is escaping the stressful world and getting a virtual hug from the interior (love).

By amalgamating the ideas that emerged – which were already converging – the result is an eight-sided natural wood structure with a sunshine roof, cushions, grass and space to explore and feel rested inside. The final igloo was modeled and designed as a self standing slot–together structure in birch plywood by Hamish Bigg and made in Glasgow. The young people decorated it and decided on every detail. They named it, ‘The Hut Thing: Everybody Fits Somewhere’. It was unveiled at an event and showcased for a time at South Block Studios alongside three other ‘missing statues’ created by other artists’ workshops.

2017

Commissioned by the University of Glasgow’s Hunterian art gallery, this bold series of illustrations features eleven of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s most recognisable buildings. Hand drawn in ink, each building has been illustrated in detail to highlight it’s idiosyncratic - and celebrated - features. The black and white buildings are offset by the fresh turquoise colour behind. You can find all buildings in the main design and several key offerings across a range of products. Featured buildings include: Scotland street school, The Lighthouse, Queen’s Cross church, Daily Record building (Stereo), Hill House, House for an Art Lover, Windy Hill, the Willow Tearooms, the Glasgow School of Art and 78 Derngate.

Available as a large china mug, teatowel, prints, magnets, tote bag or ceramic coaster or tile, you can invite these smart homewares into your life and enjoy the Mackintosh magic anywhere! Available exclusively from the Hunterian gallery in Glasgow (and in my online shop).

Summer 2017

Working with lawyer, Philip Hannay at Cloch Solicitors in Glasgow, we collaborated on creating hype for a new Lawyers Heritage Trail Map. The mini postcard sized map was launched at the 200th anniversary dinner of the Library at the RFPG, the Royal Faculty of Procurators building in February 2017. Concurrently, badges and stickers were handed out and since they’ve all disappeared, we think it went pretty well!

The map is of central Glasgow and depicts a collection of sites and illustrated buildings relevant to law history in Glasgow, the current courts, sites of the old courts, the fantastic Lion Chambers, City Chambers and most importantly - the Royal Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow.

This building is relevant as we turn the postcard over. The reverse of the map showcases fourteen busts of significant gents from Glasgow’s lawmaking past. Each of them is visible on the three sides of the Royal Faculty Building in Nelson Mandela Square, Glasgow. 

The map will be extended for a tour running throughout Glasgow’s Doors Open Day Festival in September through which we hope to explore the many depictions of ‘lady’ Justice across the city’s art and architecture. Adding a few ladies to go with the gents. 

© Cloch Solicitors, 2017

February 2016

Bedlam: The Asylum and Beyond is The Wellcome Collection's Autumn / Winter 2016 exhibition concerning the past, present and imagined future of mental health care. Madlove played a key role in researching and essentially building an asylum to reflect the needs and desires of people suffering with their mental health. The Madlove designer asylum is a place created by and for mad people to go mad.

To communicate the workshop process and to try and visually express such a complex and wide ranging theme, illustration was used across the board. Along with the data gathered throughout the workshops in 2016, I worked with lead artists the Vacuum Cleaner and Hannah Hull to develop illustrations that would best serve our purpose.

There are six 'day in the life' storyboards charting the perfect day for 6 different real people in our asylum as well as a near seven metre long diagram detailing the workshop process of Madlove in over 140 seperate illustrations. There are some diagrams of the architect's models that illustrate all the areas within the Madlove asylum landscape - a sort of key to the model.

The exhibition ran in London from 15th September 2016 to 15th January 2017.

Some of the photos used here with the kind permission of the Wellcome Collection.

After an enthusiastic response to my Glasgow Doors Open Day Kids Map 2015, I was delighted to be asked back to create the map for 2016! Building on the success of the 2015 map, tailored specifically for children attending the Doors Open Day event, I wanted the 2016 map to be even more ambitious than the previous year.

Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival is an annual event taking place across the Glasgow during the 3rd week of September. Buildings open their doors and give free access to the public in order to showcase the city’s built environment, architecture and heritage. As well as open access to buildings, the week-long programme also includes bookable walks, tours, talks, special events and a dedicated children’s programme. One of the festival's main aims is to raise public awareness of the city’s rich built heritage and more broadly to strengthen Glaswegian civic pride! The event continues to grow in popularity, adding more attractions each year, and this latest map reflects that growth, incorporating new features and several activities for its young audience.

The document was given to every primary school age child in the greater Glasgow area, totalling 10,000 free copies! With both layout and design by Illustration, etc., the map needed to be fun to use and portable, whilst including enough information so that families could plan their day out together. This simplified map of Glasgow employed a slightly “creative” scale in order to include vibrant illustrations of the participating buildings and aimed to capture imaginations with interactive sections containing art activities, puzzles and a competition. 

The City Art Centre’s main Summer - Autumn exhibition for 2017 is titled The Edinburgh Alphabet. Not only did they restock my original Edinburgh Alphabet goodies, but asked me to create an entirely new alphabet based on - and for – the new exhibition. Using images selected by curators from their impressive collections, I built up a new design full of colour and fun, exploring objects, artworks and architecture with a colour scheme inspired by that sweet, colourful chewy delight that is the famous Edinburgh rock!
 

The style isn’t the same throughout – I wanted to ensure each letter was as individual as the artifacts, so although they are tied together by the ABC and a shared colour scheme, I felt able to experiment with different styles and approaches. Favourite visitor items include J for junk,  a doll made from an old shoe. I loved drawing A for arts and crafts (it's also Joan of ARC so it's a double whammy) and Z for Zoo, based on a painting of leopards in the collections. 

The range will be available at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh as a colour teatowel and prints, with single letters are available as postcards and greetings cards.

Summer 2017

Rozelle is a natural parkland, gallery and house run by South Ayrshire Council and it is situated near Alloway, South of Ayr. They felt the need to have a designated, illustrated map of the estate including all the interior attractions as many visitors could easily miss the more secluded carvings and sculptures. Little illustrations of the wildlife in Rozelle’s largely natural wilderness are featured as a panel to the right of the main map. The key assists in finding basic amenities and there’s also (in the illustration, etc. style) a handy fact about Rozelle’s tree species!

The map has a slightly ‘creative’ scale and even has north at the bottom of the map! This makes the site much easier to navigate for a visitor who doesn’t need to find the points of the compass (let’s be honest, that’s most of us). A visitor can easily orientate themselves via the featured items on the map and visit smashing places like the life size figure carvings in the Remembrance woodland, the ever-changing artists in the gallery and the crocodile hiding in the house.

The map launches as part of the festival of museums in May 2016. An A4 copy of the map will be available to every visitor to the house.

April 2016

Organised alongside Glasgow Doors Open Day,  the illustrious Glasgow illustrations are a visual celebration of some of Glasgow’s world class architecture. I’ve worked with Doors Open Day and Glasgow Building Preservation Trust several times in the past in different capacities and it’s one of my favourite weeks of the year. As a lover of people’s stories, architecture and Glasgow, I am in my element! A new illustration and accompanying fun fact was released each month from February to October 2016 in preparation for September’s week long Doors Open Day Festival. All nine illustrations were shared by Doors Open Day via facebook, instagram and twitter and were widely shared by many organisations and Glasgow heritage lovers, seen by tens of thousands of people.

Feb - Oct 2016

Using the Wellcome Collection as a base, Hannah Hull and a group of young people who hear voices worked on concepts concerning voice hearing. Using their workshop models, drawings and written ideas, I worked with Hannah to produce illustrations that would effectively communicate their concepts without simplifying them. Their witty, intelligent and imaginative work is brought to life through these illustrations, making them visually accessible to a wider audience.

There are seven distinct projects, each by one voice hearer;

I’m not broken; I’m a masterpiece by Nikki

Voice Hearer’s Headphones by Deliylah

Torso of a Voice Hearer by Mallory

The Sleeping Siren by Tyra

Stigma Starter Kit by Lizzie

My Infinity by Rhea

The Colour of My Emotions by Millie

Find out more about the voice hearing project here and more about these artworks by going here.

The exhibition, ‘This is a Voice’ runs in the Wellcome Collection from 14th April -31stJuly 2016. These pieces are situated by the Studio on the first floor.

April 2016

To celebrate Glasgow’s Commonwealth year, I wanted to build on my Glasgow Alphabet, revisit the places and draw a map of all twenty-six letters. I wanted to explore the places and the people that make them special to Glasgow. The A2 printed maps have the buildings and street plan on the front, but the reverse is the result of over eleven hours of recording. I interviewed a person from each of the twenty-six Glasgow icons in order to get their personal reflections and insights, some of which features on the map.

The Lighthouse launched my map and accompanying exhibition in the long gallery in time for the Commonwealth Games opening and I conducted tours all summer and for Doors Open Day 2014

Spring- Summer 2015

An event organised by Pidgin Perfect and commissioned by Merchant City Festival 2015 and VELOCITY. The Banchetto framed a discussion and celebration of the current shifting culture in the famous Barras area of Glasgow.

My role was to work with local business, the Pantry Cafe to form one of the three celebratory meal courses – the main. After I undertook some interviews and research in the area, together we designed two sandwiches; The Barras Club (Irn Bru chicken, bacon and salad) and the Glasgow Green Club (Cheese, Irn Bru chutney and salad). The sandwiches were wrapped in illustrated newsprint, folding into a ‘fortune teller’ about the Barras area. The sandwiches were adorned with laser cut sandwich spikes with easily recognisable local icons to complete the ‘pieces’ of the Barras.  

The university shop commissioned a range of exclusive merchandise based on famous alumni, including Adam Smith, Lord Kelvin and James Watt. These three designs all contain an illustrated timeline of life events, portraits, signatures and their achievements. The designs are a fun interpretation of facts and figures, brightening up any office or home.

The whole range is available from the university shop from September 2015 and the three main designs are available as A5 notebooks, prints, mugs, ceramic coasters, double sided tote bags and magnets.

Feb-May 2015

Glasgow Doors Open Day is an annual event in September organised by Glasgow Buildings Preservation Trust (GBPT). In 2015, they commissioned an illustrated map to accompany a new Children's trail. I drew twenty buildings as well as various other sights they wished to include. I took on the layout and design, creating a complete map on one side and information and a key on the other.

The design is colourful, simple and appealing so it can be enjoyed by children as well as their accompanying adults. One of these printed A3 maps was given to every single primary aged child in the Greater Glasgow area in order to encourage participation in the week long festival.

May - July 2015

A permanent outdoor artwork for Shetland Library, commissioned by the Scottish Book Trust and facilitated by Pidgin Perfect. The ‘High Standards of Shetland Library’ is a series of four hand sewn flags, inspired by Shetland Library, the islands and the Jackie Kay poem, ‘Dear Library’. The designs celebrate the different aspects of the library; the mobile libraries, the family and children’s services, the people, the books and the building. The wooden flagpole was made by Paparwark for the ‘standards’ and harks back to the Shetland seafaring, craft based culture.

The artwork was officially unveiled on Friday 28th November as part of Scottish Book week 2014, with four other artworks across Scotland unveiled in the preceding four days. The launch event began with the first flag being flown. Locals were treated to coffee and cake, and children were invited for colouring in, singing, storytelling and other activities.

November 2014

Hand drawn map with digital colour. Commissioned by Community Renewal for the Govanhill People's History Project for their website, accompanying leaflet and listening trail in the area. Showcases many of the well known sights of Glasgow's Govanhill, but also ties into oral history collected from local residents.

The leaflet of the listening trail  is available for free at local libraries and community centres, as well as online as a download. To view an STV interview about the project, just click here.

Jan 2015

A book commissioned by the Village Storytelling Centre  to commemorate the Glasgow Garden Festival of 1988. The book contains recollections from locals of all ages that remember the pavilions, events and flowers at the festival. I created colour accented ink illustrations for the cover and interior pages to complement the text and bring some colour to the stories.

Jan 2014

Selma is the name of a refugee who came to the UK from Serbia in 1991. Vickie was her friend and lived with her in a school for several months – she’s now a theatre maker. The illustration element was the creation of a ‘mobile museum’ of handmade, marker drawn artifacts. It ended up being 10 drawers, 5 suitcases, one huge game and a big banner. Impressively, it all fits in the back of a car. The Terra Incognita show is designed for school age children and it toured in early 2014, early and mid 2015 too.

Photos by Jassie Earl. 2014

Theatre company, Tortoise in a nutshell commissioned a series of illustrations for their 2013 Edinburgh Fringe show, GRIT. The show tells the story of child soldiers and the effect of war on children. The show featured puppetry, movement and manipulation of projected, illustrated images – which I drew to their specifications. I created the images in ink and digitally accented each with a sharp, bold colour. Most of the images depict people, but there are cityscapes, tanks and objects of war included in the expansive series. It was punishing!

Spring 2013

Commissioned by Carlisle City Council and sponsored by Dulux paint, the murals were to reinvigorate a tired urban area of Carlisle. The Sands Centre mural is a series of seven painted walls covering elements of the area’s past and present. The designs were based on the Amazing Carlisle Facts series I designed, but also cover elements of the unique Cumbrian culture and history. It contains sheep counting, railways, Cumberland wrestling, lions, unicorns, Hadrian’s Wall and more. The 250 square metre mural took me and a team of volunteers twenty-one days to paint! The murals are a permanent fixture in the city centre and were opened by the Mayor in June 2013.

May 2013

I come from England originally (despite being an honorary Scot) and I grew up in Carlisle. It is steeped in history, but also harbours an impressive array of interesting facts! As a love letter to my home town, I decided to create a series of 25 illustrated facts about Carlisle, the Cumbrian city of my birth. Each fascinating fact is not only entirely true but is accompanied by a hand drawn illustration, coloured digitally with a smart, bold red, a reflection of the red sandstone buildings that can be admired throughout the city. Following the success of the original designs, I was commissioned by Cumbria County Council to design and paint a mural in Carlisle City Centre based on these 25 facts in Spring 2016. 

This set of engaging and fun images are now available via a number of quality products including colour printed tea towels, books and postcards which are all available from various Carlisle retailers and also in my online shop.

In association with the Arches in Glasgow, National Theatre of Scotland commissioned a series of illustrations for their Auteurs Project programme. It was part of the Behaviour Festival. The five performers were illustrated in sharp, dark pencil along with a series of objects from their shows. The artists were Kieran Hurley, Rob Drummond, Claire Cunningham (no relation), Nic Green and Gary McNair.

March 2013

I created the Glasgow Alphabet with the help of local people through social media. They made suggestions for every letter and I illustrated one each day so people could keep up with the real time progress as well as feel involved in the process. The finished alphabet is a colourful celebration of all twenty-six icons in the ABC, from Armadillo, Barras and Clyde all the way to the Zoology Museum. The icons have a good spread geographically across the city, are culturally all different and they are a mixture of famous places as well as some more hidden favourites.

Prints of various sizes, printed teatowels and the accompanying Glasgow Alphabet Map are all available from several Glasgow retailers as well as from my online shop.

Sept-Oct 2012