South London Tripstitch

I've been working on a number of projects, one being the new Nest Gallery exhibition, opening in November at the Department of Coffee and Social Affairs in Clerkenwell. Anna Lincoln and I have been working with the Exhibition Curator of the space and five other Nest artists to put together 'The Great Outdoors'. Currently the work is in progress, we're going to print soon and things are gradually building momentum. My work is a series of three embroideries depicting South London, in particular three stops starting at the Heygate Estate and finishing at the Camberwell end of Coldharbour Lane, close to my house. Above is a preview of my 'Heygate Ladies' embroidery, the first of the 'tripstitch' (phrase coined by Anna).

Grayson Perry at Victoria Miro

Grayson Perry's beautiful tapestries depicting the three British class systems and their presence in modern times is on at Victoria Miro. Managed to get over to it last week. Very inspiring.

Made in Clerkenwell - Craft Central Open Studios

A little late, but last month we went down to Craft Central Open Studios to see some lovely applied arts. We had a look at the studios of Jessica de Lotz and TurnbullGrey as well as these - From the top - Lok Ming Fung, Haidee Drew, Vic Lee, Helen Beard, The Big Forest and Ikuko Iwamoto.

Illustration for Identity

I recently completed a series of draft illustrations for a potential client who wanted hand-drawn sketched illustrations showing Mac products working in harmony. The concept was of the products as an orchestra. Although the work wasn't used, I am happy with the drawings.

inc. magazine - Issue 5

inc. magazine have released issue 5 - The Postcard Issue. 27 poems...27 illustrations. You can buy a copy here. This is the illustration I did for 'A House Marks Time' by Nancey Charley. Cover artwork by Sister Arrow.

Bologna

Inspired by the colours and shapes of our Bologna trip.

New business cards

Business cards with some old artwork and some new artwork (waiting on them to be published...!) - celebrating the new website.

reenamakwana.com

I've got a website - set up by design whizz Max Wilson of O.W.H Creative (he's the 'W'). Bookmark it on your browser and I'll update it with new things as well as keeping track of things on here.

Have a look -

Reena Makwana

Woodpecker Wooliams

An illustration I did for Issue 13 of DrunkenWerewolf for Woodpecker Wooliams is on her site - enjoy the website here - here.

Potato Varieties Tea Towel Design

I entered this in ToDryFor's 2012 tea towel competition - potato varieties as their names. I am thinking about getting this printed myself so watch this space...

The World of Kitsch

Claire Smyth of The World of Kitsch wrote a post about my work which you can see here Her website has some pretty interesting stuff on it (dogs in Star Wars outfits...tattoos of Bill Murray circa Ghostbusters). The post has a preview of an illustration I've produced for a future project...

Maybe Room for Seconds

The term 'foodie' makes me cringe a little, so I'll go with what my ex said I could be - a 'foodist'. I'm started a tumblr to document food - whether it's in a cafe, restaurant, something I've made, something made by my mum or sister or friend. I'll see how long this lasts but it will be good to document these things along with some of my food illustrations.

Maybe Room for Seconds

Cotswolds Drawings

Experimenting with felt tips and coloured markers...

Postcards from Europe - Postcard Swap

I received my postcard swap today from Postcards from Europe, organised by Rosie Gainsborough, Lucy Biddle, Katrina Currie and Chloe Bryon from Paulo Lacruz who is based in Alicante. It's a very cute hot toast! It also came with a postcard from the very talented Rosie Gainsborough.

The Postcards from Europe publication, featuring interviews with artists Mark Lazenby, Riitta Ikonen, Sophia Martineck, and Anthony Zinonsos, interviews with selected Postcards from Europe participants and selected postcards from the exhibition is available to view on here.

A short film of the project was made by Charlie Newland, and you can see some shots of the exhibition and book, and hear the organisers talking about the project.