Kate Bush - Before The Dawn

You've probably all heard by now, as the news seems to be everywhere, from national headlines to social media feeds.  I was having a bit of a lie in, thinking about breakfast before a Friday morning walk, when I looked at my Facebook feed.  There it was on the official Kate Bush Facebook page - playing live in August & September!  The first time playing live in 35 years.  I do apologise to any non Kate converts, but this is BIG news, and it found me leaping out of bed to grab my wallet to try and secure a ticket!  If I'd read the post in full I'd have seen that these are not on sale until Friday.

From the first time I saw her on Top Of The Pops performing Wuthering Heights, I was sold.  Smash Hits posters of Kate were blu-tacked between Blondie, Depeche Mode, and a few Athena numbers in my room. She's always been around.  Although favourite albums sometimes jostle for places in my top ten list, Hounds Of Love is always right up there.  There were lots of things going on in my life when this album was released, and it became a significant soundtrack to those times.  Listening to certain tracks from it can take me right back there.  I was the first one in my class to buy it, and everyone was handing me blank tapes to record it!

I have a dream list of people I'd like to photograph, and Kate is right at the top of it.  I can't see that this will ever happen, and I think I might be too excited, scared, flummoxed that I'd have stage shutter fright anyway. But maybe I might just get to see her play live..

A wedding stationery shoot with Julia Ogden

A little while ago, I had the pleasure of working with local artist Julia Ogden.  I've long been an admirer of her work and we have a couple of her prints in the house, so when she asked me to take images of her new wedding stationery, I immediately knew it would be a beautiful shoot.

Julia is a fellow nature lover, and she's really inspired by the changing seasons and woodland.  There's a real joy and serenity to her work as you can see from these beautiful birdies. I was really excited when she said she was about to start offering a bespoke wedding stationery service, as I knew how beautiful and unique it would be.  Her stationery is a combination of hand drawn illustrations and text.  Julia then hand silk screen prints the wedding stationery.  Save the date, invites, bunting, order of service, place names, thank you cards, you name it!

I'll shut up and let Julia's work do the talking - starting with that gorgeous bunting!

And here's just a small selection of Julia's other work....

I thought I'd just share this new piece of work too.  I commissioned Julia to make a sign for some upcoming wedding exhibitions, and she came up with this gorgeous design, printed onto wood...

If you'd like to see more of Julia's work or wedding stationery collections - here's her website.  She also teaches other people how to draw.  I'm going to be taking the plunge next week when Julia runs a painting and drawing workshop in our studio on the 19th March - really looking forward to hopefully finding my inner painter.  You can find out more information here.  Maybe see you there!