New book -Watercolour Life

I am so, so excited to announce my new book, Watercolour Life! Back in 2020 when the world went into lockdown so many people turned to creativity to keep themselves occupied and to sooth their anxious minds. I was overwhelmed by incredible messages from people telling me how painting had helped them through these tough times. It was clear that it was time for a second watercolour book.

I worked on this book in and out of lockdown, throughout my pregnancy and during Herbie’s early days; it is a true labour of love. It brings together everything people loved about The Joy of Watercolour and teaches you lots of new skills and techniques with 40 beautiful projects to paint. I’m so proud of this book and I hope you love it too! It is available to buy now. Below are some of my favourite projects from the book.

Watercolour in Blossom with Papier

Earlier in the year I had the chance to work with Papier, one of my favourite clients, on some content for their magazine. The team came over to my studio to film me painting one of the pieces from the stationery collection. The cherry blossom stationery suite is quite an elegant, pared back watercolour design, and it’s lovely to see it come to life in the video. It’s such a treat to work with talented photographers and filmmakers, and every time I work on a project like this I learn something new. I’m so happy with the final film and photos, but you would never know how much tidying and re-organising it took for my studio to look like that. Behind the scenes whole room is a tip to make room for all the lights and tripods!

You can read the accompanying interview over on the Papier website.

Writing a Watercolour Book!!

I announced over on my Instagram and I forgot to share the news on here: I am writing a book!! Last summer I had an idea for a book. I realised that most watercolour books are very old-fashioned and very traditional, and I wanted to write something modern fun and accessible. I got in touch with my friend Lesley who helped me write a book proposal, which ended up being a whopping 23 pages long, and presented to some publishers. In the New Year I got offered a book deal and I am spending this summer writing the book. I am used to having ideas for illustrations in my head then making them happen on paper, but having an idea for a book then turning it into a real book deal with the big publisher is something completely new. It's just crazy that this project went from dream to reality. I am loving the process of writing this book. I am just having so much fun coming up with projects for it. The publishers have given me a lot of freedom to choose what I want to teach in the book which has been brilliant. I love teaching people to paint and encouraging them to find their creativity, so it's really exciting to be able to do that on a much wider scale due to this book. I would describe this book as everything I know and love about watercolours. It's for people who want to paint colourful, joyful things to put on their wall and not take it all too seriously. At this point I have just passed the halfway mark and I've handed the first half of my manuscript to the publishers. I can't believe I've written a half a book already. I've got just over a month to finish the second half. My book will be coming out next summer. Follow me over on Instagram for sneak peeks of my progress.