I have two prints in the group printmaking show 'Pressed' at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto. Here a few pics from the private view last night.
The exhibition is on until 25th June, mondays to fridays, 9am - 5pm.
I do hope you can make it!
I've been trying to do more mokuhanga, and recently completed this print of Japanese kokeshi dolls for my new collaborative project with Yoomni Nam and Katie Baldwin.
This time we're calling our project alabama + california + kansas. You can find out more on our blog. We'll again be travelling to visit each other in our studios in these locations, and sending work to each other.
Here's a pic of the wood block for this print, as I was carving it.
I painted this latte picture for LOKL cafe in Kuala Lumpur.
It's in the entrance area, just inside the window.
A nice contrast to the KL map I also did for them when they opened!
I really hope to sit and relax there one day...
Here are some lovely photos of my HK toile ceramics, showing the Chinese tea time set, with rice and soup bowls, dipping plates, chopstick holders and spoons! 
The ceramics are available in contemporary red or traditional blue, and feature little details like egg tarts and dim sum in the middle.
You can buy them directly from faux and tree in HK, along with a few other retail outlets. Sik fan!
I recently created some maps for a series of town guide magazines for Litchfield, Ridgefield, Fairfield, Bedford + Pound Ridge, and Wilton, in beautiful Connecticut, USA. The magazines are super nicely produced, and full of useful local information.
I illustrated one map per magazine, like this:
Small details from the maps were used throughout the articles to highlight various attractions and historical notes.
You can see the town websites here. I hope I can go there one day!
Today is our second wedding anniversary, hurrah! I made this little etching of a constellation of stars to celebrate...
The Huntington Library, near LA, is a beautiful botanical gardens and art gallery/museum. I recently designed an exclusive toile pattern for them, to use on a variety of products to sell in their new museum store, which has just opened. This lovely paper parasol, with wooden handle, is available now!
When I was commissioned for this project, I visited the gardens, took photographs and did sketches...
and then designed this repeat toile featuring many of the elements I saw there. I especially loved the Japanese bridge, the rose gardens and the cactus gardens.
The parasol has been featured in Romantic Homes magazine.
It's available to buy in the museum store or online here. Look out for more products with this pattern, coming soon!
At the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco I admired the gorgeous anemones and seaweed in the aquarium.
There were fish, seahorses, sea slugs and coral, and all sorts of weird squiggly things.
The shiny gold sparkles of the piranha were mesmerising.
There were also fascinating historical displays on the upper floors. I just can't resist the labels and cataloguing of these types of collections.
I loved all the hand-writing and little boxes...
I watched the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters tennis tournament in Monaco this week, on the most beautiful court I've ever seen.
I spent a day watching Tsonga, Djokovic, Ferrer and Cilic in the sunshine and with the sparkling Mediterranean in the background.
Merveilleux!
A lovely visit to Kew in London this week, with sunshiny picnicking on the lawns...
The geese were very tame (or maybe just hungry), but with lovely shiny feathers!
I absolutely adore the Palm House, with its Victorian architecture and glorious hothouse splendour. The wrought-iron staircase is rustily beautiful.
Last weekend we went to the Joshua Tree National Park, and I fell in love with the hot desert air, the tiny delicate flowers, and the freaky weird, but gorgeous trees...
It was like being in a prehistoric land, I expected dinosaurs behind every boulder.
The desert flowers bloom around about now, and finding them was a joy.
I illustrated a branch of plum blossom for the Spring launch of the new aloof mannequin from Bonaveri, for their China showroom. 
I kept the colours bright and the line crisp, to create a calm and beautiful backdrop for the elegant new mannequins.
My illustration is influenced by traditional Chinese painting, but I tried to give it a modern feel. I started with pencil sketches of the flowers, and then drew the line in dip-pen and ink, finally adding colour in Photoshop. 
Here are some sealions sleeping happily, drawn during a visit to Santa Cruz this week.
This weekend we went to watch the Golden State Warriors play the Detroit Pistons in Oakland. I've never been to a basketball game before, but it was amazing fun, and it's possibly the fastest sport I've tried to sketch!
Go Warriors!
I've just installed a display in the artspace window next to Alleycat Books in the Mission in San Francisco, on 24th and Treat. I wanted to create the illusion of looking into an interior, playing with various layers and dimensions.
I drew an illustrated black and white backdrop of a Victorian parlour, looking through to several more rooms. I hid little details in the drawing to create stories: portraits, a lady by the fire, a statue of a rabbit, a cat’s tail, a stuffed bird under a glass dome. I played with depth within the drawing itself, and then added to it by hanging real framed pictures on the drawn walls.
The framed pieces are etchings of ceramics and a portrait, echoing the subject matter within the backdrop. They're full of patterns, creating a layer of patterned artwork on top of patterned wallpaper.
One of the difficulties was fighting the un-removable grafitti on the glass. By creating a detailed pattern, I hope I've managed to distract the eye!
Please go and take a look if you're around. It should be up for 2 months.
This week I went to Kepler's bookstore in Menlo Park to hear one of my favourite authors Laurie R. King talk about her new Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes novel. She chatted quite informally with another crime writer, Catriona McPherson, and I sketched them as I listened.
Afterwards I asked them to sign my sketchbook. What a wonderful evening!
My little succulents and cactii have suddenly burst into bloom on my sunny California balcony!
A very Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year to you all! Here's a little year of the goat card I did for the Keswick Foundation in HK. Love it.
Here's a video of me drawing a happy new year goat. It was made as part of the social media campaign for Pacific Place mall in HK. It's a visual pun on a traditional Chinese blessing about the rabbit's breath and the goat's eyebrows, which somehow translates to good fortune! https://vimeo.com/119728675
I did pencil sketches first to work out the order in which to draw things, how the goat should look, and the positioning of drawing and text.
This is how the final goat looks in ink and watercolour...
And this is the filming. I drew at my normal speed, but tried to keep it generally consistent, and the final footage was speeded up, and a soundtrack added. I've never done this before, but it was fun!
The Chinese New Year decorations featuring my zodiac illustrations are now installed in the Thomas Heatherwick designed Pacific Place shopping mall in HK. In the large atrium, there are banners and lanterns,
which are also featured throughout the mall.
My favourite part of the installation is the glass wall of the lifts; it features my illustration on a huge scale, and looks wonderful when you travel up and down.
They're also on the connecting mall walkway, over the main road,
and there's a pagoda with flower maze in the lower atrium, with an illustrated rotating display and each of the zodiac animals on the outer wall. 
At the back of this display are some Chinese-style screens made of wood. I love the way elements from my drawn illustration have been transformed into 3D.
There's a smaller pagoda also, based on my drawings, with information screens and drawings on each side. I really like the flowers on the floor!
If you spend a certain amount of money while you're shopping at the mall, you can collect a special gift at this lovely kiosk.
You can get two of these limited edition fine bone china dinner plates, with my zodiac illustration in a lovely repeat pattern!
And if you upload an instagram photo at the mall, you may win a pack of these wonderful pink and gold lucky fai chun.
I do hope you'll go and have a look!
