Spaced Out Exhibition

After a lot of hard work (why did I think giving myself two months to prepare for my first solo exhibition was a good idea?), my show Spaced Out went up at the Cambridge Art Salon last week and doors were opened to the public on Saturday 5th November. In keeping with Bonfire Night and the chilly autumnal weather, I put on a bit of a spread, with honey-mustard glazed sausages, toffee popcorn 'bark' (amazing) and autumn fruit punch, to give my visitors what I hoped would be a multi-sensory feast (thankfully the smell of burning came from outside the gallery).

I'll give you a little photo tour. Please excuse my reflection creeping into places where it wasn't welcome...

Outside the front of the gallery.

View through the left window.

View through the right.

Here's a clearer view of that painting, taken at home.

A detail.

A bit closer...

As you first walk in, to the left are three paintings of nebulae.
Green (acrylic), blue (oils) and red (acrylic).
You can also see three lovely metal pieces by my friend
Stephen Bedrikovs, inspired by the cosmos and swirling galaxies.

A close up of the beautiful copper dishes.

The Flaming Star Nebula.

The Bubble Nebula.

The Great Carina Nebula.

View across the gallery to the right corner.

The Orion Nebula.

A detail.

Along the right wall hang six digital illustrations - three A2 and three A3. I will blog pictures of these (and the snacks, those oh-important snacks) tomorrow as I'm in need of some shut eye!

The last day of Spaced Out is tomorrow, 10am-2pm at the Cambridge Art Salon, 29 Cromwell Road, Cambridge, CB1 3EB (which is just off Mill Road/Coldhams lane, depending on which direction you come from for any Cambridge locals). Please head down if you'd like to see these paintings, illustrations and metal creations up close and personal, before it's too late!

** A day later than advertised, but here are the digital illustrations that were also on show.

Space Ship, as seen on all the Spaced Out fliers.

A detail.

Meteor Shower

A detail.

The Omniscient Observer

A detail.

The Sky's the Limit
(You may recognise this from my Society6 page.)

Crossing the Asteroid Belt

Catching Stars

A detail.

All prints are available to purchase directly from me, either framed or unframed. Please contact me via email hello@loupeajeux.co.uk for details.

Last but not least, the toffee popcorn bark...

Very simple to make. All you need to do is carefully melt a 200g bar of milk chocolate and a 200g bar of white chocolate (I went for a slightly smaller bar of white with crispy bits in). Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, poor over 80% of the milk and then white chocolate, swirling it together slightly with a spoon. Scatter over two or three handfuls of toffee pop corn and a generous splattering of M&Ms (I went with red, yellow, orange and brown for an autumn colour palette). Next, use a spoon to drizzle over the remaining melted chocolate. Chill until hard and then snap into pieces. Divine.

Upcoming Exhibition

My first solo (+ friend) exhibition. Gulp.

Website Update

I'm currently updating my website, so should you happen to visit, there may be a few bare parts or strange orders to things until I get it all done. Just a little word of warning in case you thought it was broken!

Oh my! July!

Hello folks!

Well, the whole month of June whizzed by without a single blog entry from me. *slaps back of wrist* I've been really busy for the past month working on submissions for card companies mainly, plus a few craft projects.

The good news is, sales have been going steady for my Running Like Clockworld art print, which you can find (and order, if you so wish!) on Society 6. In case you've forgotten what that looks like, here it is:


I also won a little competition in the month of June, which was exciting! Run by Paper Bicycle through the Illustration Rally blog - I entered one of my floral patterns (the one below to be precise) and won a lovely print and water bottle. (Very handy for transporting Martini, gin and tonic, WATER in over the summer months.)


I entered a card design with this motif into the Tigerprint Mother's Day card comp too, and was lucky enough to make it into the top 15:


I've also been engaged in the very time consuming process of making some paper birds for a private commission. All you collage-ers and paper cutters out there - I take my summer straw hat off to you!! Here they are so far - just a Mr Peacock to join this group:


They are all double sided, and as I'm sure you can imagine, very tricky to assemble with all the individually cut feathers. I made use of four different types of glue, depending on the size and material of each feather/foot/beak/eyeball etc and what it was being stuck to. I also made use of my eyebrow tweezers for placing some cut components, which are now also helpfully covered in crusty white glue-remnants. I will wash these before any future eyebrow plucking, lest I resemble this:

Which frankly, glasses aside, I am already nearing. Definitely got that hairstyle down to a T.

Cards to Match

Couple of cards to potentially go with two of the repeating patterns I've made recently.

Roses and Posies

I had a real desire to work on a floral print over the weekend, and so that's what I did today. :-) There's too many colourways of this to put them all up, but here's a few.

Vegetables (and fruits masquerading as vegetables)

Working on building up my editorial portfolio at the moment. Here's a single page spread (or possibly even a poster) featuring my personal hot-topic - vegetables*. Just one idea for using these illustrations, although I'm also tempted to make some soup recipe cards. Going to feature one with herbs next. Do let me know what you think.

*And veggie-fruits.

Hoots, Health and Heavenly Chocolate

Owl repeating pattern based on these little dudes.


And the cake I made for my Dad's b'day - choco-cherry cream:


But it's okay. I did juice and drink all of these* too:


I love all the funny little deposits the juicer shoots out:


*That's bigger than your standard bowl - it's a mixing bowl!

Kaleidoscope Stars

In a range of colours. :-)

You Are Invited To My Tea Party

I can't help but think this would make quite nice smooth, matte-finish wallpaper for a feature wall in a jazzy tearoom... Maybe? Or tablecloths. Curtains? More is more!

Ahem. Which colourway do you like? The olive-green has a distinct 1940s wartime feel to it I reckon. I decided to stick with a block-colour background and black and white illustrations, as all the cups and cakes and whatnot have a lot of detail, so didn't want everything to become too messy. But could experiment with line colour? What do you think?


Closer-up in golden yellow:


That (hopefully) subtle olive-green:


Duck-egg adoration:


A sweet and sugary coral. I think this may be my favourite...


You may recognise this teatime ensemble (bar a few cupcakes) from my website homepage. I thought I'd give them another lease of life to show them I care. ;-)