Whilst at The Baby Show at Earls Court last week, we had the pleasure of meeting a lady called Sarah who runs http://www.ethicallysourced.co.uk/, offering unique and original Tinga Tinga Art work from Africa.  Sarah showed us an example of the artist’s work and we were extremely impressed.  She explained that “My project/small business was inspired by our year in Africa volunteering. I wanted to enable a sustainable trade for the Tinga Tinga artist and involve the Orphanage,School and Hospital that we worked on in Kenya. The aim is to offer beautiful and inspiring original art with an ethical origin”. 

For every painting purchased, a donation is made to The Rainbow Community Care Charity (school, orphanage and hospital), local to the artist in Kenya. 

Why not take a look?

Please be aware that during the postal strikes we are working hard to minimise any impact the strikes may have on our customers.  We aim to get your order to you as quickly as we can, however as our normal delivery method is Royal Mail First Class Recorded Service, our customers may experience minor delays, with delivery expected within 1-3 days from dispatch, rather than the usual 1-2 days from dispatch.

During the strikes, we recommend you:

• Place your order early, allowing as much time as possible for your package to reach you or your intended delivery address.
• We’re here to help, so please let us know if you desperately need to have something by a certain date and we will endeavour to make this possible by using additional methods.  You can contact us by telephoning the studio on 01789 773526 or by e-mailing clint@clintonbanbury.com.

An alternative delivery method which we may be able to use is parcelmonkey.co.uk.  parcelmonkey.co.uk aim to deliver packages the next day for £7.13 and within 3-4 days for £6 (all prices are subject to VAT), with £1 of this money going to help the Wave 105.2FM appeal – Cash for Kids, helping disadvantaged local children across the UK.  Unfortunately we would be unable to cover the full cost of this method of posting so would have to charge you a small amount extra for this service.  If you would like us to post your items out to you using parcelmonkey.co.uk, please telephone the studio.

Please continue to check this blog regularly for more updates.

We are now selling “Clint’s Prints” through an increasing number of galleries across the country, as well as via Amazon.co.uk, making it even easier for people to buy one of the huge ranges of prints available.  One gallery in particular placed an order for almost 30 prints with us less than 4 weeks ago, only to sell them so successfully that they have had to place another order with us already.  We will shortly be introducing a dedicated Galleries page to the website so that everyone can see whether their local gallery is a stockist.

We’re now back at work and hard at it, following the success of the Baby Show.  We sold many of “Clint’s Prints” and had the opportunity to speak to lots of parents and parents to be, as well as going gaga over the huge numbers of very cute babies in attendance.  By far our most popular print was “The New Arrival”, featuring a cute baby elephant, which we ran out of on the second day of the show.  Hopefully we didn’t disappoint too many people, as we promised everyone that more than 150 prints of this design were still available on the website.  Our range of “Family Bathtime” prints also proved successful, with many people buying them to brighten up their bathrooms.

Following The Baby Show and the RHS Show, held at Twycross Zoo last month, “The New Arrival” is well on its way to becoming one of our most popular prints.  Hopefully the success of “The New Arrival” will continue during our many Christmas shows.

Why not come and see us at the Baby Show, taking place this weekend at Earls Court. 

As well as having the opportunity to meet Clint in person and purchasing all prints at special show prices, you will also get to see the brand new prints that we will be unveiling.  Our new ranges include Baby Animals (who can resist our Jumping Joey), Fairy Cakes (including “Add one rose then bake with love”), Cowboys and Indians (featuring the loveable “Ride em Cowboy”) and our previously popular handpainted silkscreen “Family Bathtime” pictures which have now been made into limited edition prints – who knows who’ll pop up in the bath next!

Come along and say hello – we’d love to see you.

Have you seen the home page of the Twycross Zoo website lately?  At the moment, the home page features 3 of Clint’s unique illustrations which he has designed for the zoo as part of his ongoing association with them.  If you are lucky enough to visit the zoo, have a look around for more of Clint’s zoo themed work.  His work is being added on a regular basis.

The whole of October celebrates “The Big Draw” with artistic events for people of all ages and abilities and the events are brilliant.  Unfortunately as I’m not attending any as in previous years, I decided that I would give all you budding artists out there some tips which I hope you find useful.

When I was a little boy the very first thing I drew were crocodiles.  I was fascinated by them – I thought they were aggressive creatures who had the ability to eat people and I loved drawing them with people in their mouths.  Those first drawings were always closer to an illustrative style rather than fine art, but as I grew up I always experimented with different artistic styles until I realised that my passion was illustration.

My tips are:

• Draw in a sketchbook rather than on separate pieces of paper as you will be able to fill each page with drawings, your drawings will be freer than on an imposing white sheet of paper and you will be able to turn the pages and see an improvement in your work
• Always carry a small sketchbook and pens or pencils around with you so that you can get your ideas down and practice anywhere e.g. while you’re waiting for a bus
• Experiment with all mediums of art
• Draw things that are moving as it helps you to understand what is important about that object and how to get them across with the least fuss e.g. people moving, boats sailing etc.
• Buy the best watercolour paper you can afford, but don’t be afraid to use the paper
• Using good quality paper is important and it will mean that you don’t have to fight against a poor quality surface with your watercolours.  This will give you better results and this in turn will give you more confidence in your art
• Observe your subjects – think about what things look like from every angle
• At the end of the day, if you are dissatisfied with a piece of work don’t throw it away!  Take another look at it the following day as you may see something in it that you can improve on
• Practice is the key – once you start drawing and painting, do it for life and practice as much as you can
• The big thing is not to worry about trying to create a masterpiece.  This is where a sketchbook comes in handy as in a sketchbook it’s easier to believe that it’s just a sketch! 
• Work up the sketches in your sketchbook but again don’t worry about the end results as it’s the journey that counts
• Always be prepared to draw at the drop of a hat – for planned trips take a big sketchbook and spend time using your chosen medium e.g. watercolours
• Draw big – be freer with your drawings and fill the page
• When drawing or painting on a large scale, use as big a pencil or brush as you can for the job.  Don’t fiddle around with a large brush in a small area
• Think about the world we live in – draw your cat, your dog and your friends – put life in your pictures.  If drawing a scene and you see people in it, draw them too
• If using watercolours with an expanse of colour, mix up your paint in a yoghurt pot rather than a small palette so you don’t run out of mixed paint during your picture and have to waste time mixing some more
• And most importantly, always enjoy your art.

Here's a page from one of my many sketchbooks

Zoe recently had great success when she sold “Clint’s Prints” at the Royal Horticultural Society show which was held at Twycross Zoo last month.  By far the bestselling print was “The New Arrival” which Clint designed to commemorate the birth of Ganesh Vijay, the Asian elephant born at the zoo on 6th August 2009.

The next show we will be attending will be the Baby Show at Earls Court, from 16th – 18th October, when our new range of limited edition prints featuring baby animals will go on sale.  The range includes a kangaroo, a koala bear, a panda, a fawn, a lion cub and a bear cub and all will hopefully prove successful with visitors to the Baby Show.