A Book and a Sparrow. The second drawing in my Magic Garden series. A lady reads in bed, under a quilt of nasturtium with bedposts of sweepea and sheets and pillows of bedstraw.
March
Gardener and Goldfinch. A small disgruntled gnome stands with a goldfinch perched on his hat. Around him bloom morning glory, safflower, fennel, rudbeckia, cosmos, flax and strawflower. This is a new drawing and not yet available as a card but if you are a stockist and would like to stock it as a card or as an A4 print do please let me know.A park filled with daffodils. It's coming up to St Patrick's Day and of course the plant most associated with this is the shamrock but the daffodil is definitely more conspicuous in Irish parks and streets. I based this on a park I live near in Dublin but I think it could be many places.A sunny park in Spring. A huge blue sky filled with white clouds, above the Wicklow Mountains. A row of terraced houses and trees in Spring blossom, and in the foreground, a woman walks towards her little white dog. Above them a seagull flies. I was really happy with this drawing (it's mostly colouring pencil, with some white acrylic) because it's celebrating the ordinary and everyday.
February
My cards on the card rack in The Green Kitchen & Garden Shop, Walkinstown. The Green Kitchen & Garden Shop is a lovely and fairly unique spot in Walkinstown. It's a social enterprise and supports and trains a number of people who have disabilities. The café is pleasant and airy, the atmosphere is relaxed and the food is great, including its veggie options. Out the back is a good range of garden plants and in the Garden Shop are house plants and a selection of crafty gifts.
According to Irish Peatland Conservation, frogs have woken up and are having romantic rendez-vous! So it's a good time to show my wetlands range. From top left in vertical rows: Hen Harriers; Marsh Fritillary; Sundew; Summer Pond; Frogbit; Dragonfly Pond; Leaping Frog; Heron; Bog Asphodel; Irish Hare.
Happy Valentine's Day! A new design.
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This month I made these gift cards for Bat Rehabilitation Ireland, and you can buy them by DMing Susan on the BRI Instagram. Bats are such fascinating little creatures and I think these cards make thoughtful and unique gifts. I marvel at the hard work done by organisations like BRI to protect Irish wildlife.
January
A little photo of my greetings card Dandelions. Dandelions are one of the earliest wildflowers and are very important sources of nectar for insects. Their leaves provide some kinds of caterpillars with food too. They're also just so cheerful and bright. I've drawn them here with red deadnettles and sun spurge, and a cloud of forget-me-nots. A common garden snail with rich red-brown patterns on its shell is browsing a leaf and above the forget-me-nots is a hoverfly, its wings a blur.
With Valentine's Day just a month away, I've added a Valentines page to collect together all my romantic designs in one place. These Irish made greetings cards are perfect for lovers all year round. They're eco-friendly, being printed on recycled paper and packaged in biodegradable cellophane.
December
A quick guide to shopping Baglady Designs for Christmas, with some ideas for framing:
I was delighted to make these A5 cards for Bat Rehabilitation Ireland. They are for gift donations so if you know someone who loves bats, this could be a lovely Christmas present for them. You can contact BRI through their website or Instagram to buy one.
Bookstór in Kinsale with a window full of things for Christmas, including some of my cards! You can follow Bookstór on Instagram here. You can see the full list of my stockists here.
December's here and Baglady Designs Christmas cards are in a number of independent shops around Ireland. Printed on recycled paper and packaged in biodegradable cellophane, these beautifully illustrated cards make Christmas greetings extra special.
As of the first week in December, you can buy them from Bookstór, Kinsale, Cork; 2pointroad, Crosshaven, Cork; Hudson's Wholefoods, Ballydehob, Cork; J Joyce & Co, Prince's Street, Cork; Amelia's, Letterkenny, Donegal; The Company of Books, Ranelagh, Dublin; Heidi Ryan's, Kenmare, Kerry; Adora & Co, Portlaois, Laois, and the Breffni Gallery, Leitrim
November
A pair of my Irish wildlife greetings cards in simple A6 frames in blonde wood. Barn Owl and Red Squirrel make a nicely contrasting couple of pictures for the wall. This makes an inexpensive but tasteful and thoughtful gift.
Did someone say Secret Santa? Or did they in fact say Kriss Kringle and then end up having an argument about whether it's really Kris Kindle? Well however you refer to it, what could be a better idea than a beautiful little card in a nice frame? Although I'd also add in some chocolates.
This Grey Heron isn't a new design but it's a new print of it, which I just love. It's hard to describe the colour of the envelope I found to go with it - Windsor & Newton's take on Naples Yellow isn't too far off. Some of my cards are particularly suited for framing and I think this is one.More Christmas cards!
Some of my Christmas card designs, printed on recycled paper in Dublin by Smart Imaging. I've paired these with recycled and non-recycled envelopes and packaged them in biodegradable cellophane. I'll be updating the Christmas page with infomation on where you can buy these. They're also available as printed cards for businesses and organisations who want to send a very special Christmas greeting to their customers or clients.
October
The Baglady Designs Christmas Catalogue is now online! All these designs are available for retailers to buy wholesale. If you have a business or organisation and would like personalised Christmas cards you can order these designs with a message inside. These Christmas greetings cards are designed in Dublin and printed in Ireland on high quality recycled paper.
Pigeons at Platform 7, Connolly Station. During my holidays I did the excellent historical tour of Newbridge House in Donabate, North Dublin. Waiting to catch the train to Donabate at Connolly Station I saw two pigeons resting on a ledge on the opposite building. I took some liberties with the architecture, bringing together features that are more scattered. This was painted in acrylic on paper.
In other news... I'm back to work!
September
I'll be on holidays for the rest of September but I'm delighted that more stockists have been added this month, so check the Stockists Page to see who is near you.
I use PLA - cornstarch-based cellophane - for packaging my greetings cards, and have done so since I started selling cards in 2003. PLA is biodegradable in municipal composting (so, your brown bin if you have one). I use recycled paper for my cards, and recycled envelopes where possible. I chose these materials because it was important to me personally that my cards were as eco-friendly as they could be. There's now increased interest in the environmental credentials of the things we make and buy, so this month I switched to PLA cellophane which is printed with a small message that lets people know that it is compostable and also that it's made from a sustainable material.
August
Chrysanthemums. I did this drawing in Autumn 2022, but I stopped at the flowers and vase, with just a few lines for the surface, the shadow, and the green light from the glass. It was drawn on grey paper and I quite liked the contrast of the colourful chrysanthemums against the grey. But over the past few months it started niggling at me that it needed a brighter background. I finally attacked it with some lemon and ochre pencils, and I have to say I'm really pleased with this new version of it.It's a beautiful hot August day so I'm working on... Christmas cards! I do corporate Christmas cards for businesses who want to send something very special and memorable to their clients or customers in December. These can be from a very extensive range of existing designs, or I can draw something just for your company. The cards are printed in high quality on 100% recycled heavyweight paper.And a little more seasonably... a drawing of wild roses. I printed this up for a wedding couple, as thank-you cards with a personalised message inside, using recycled card which has a subtle tint of ivory and pairing them with envelopes in soft pink. This design is available with or without the 'Thank You' caption.
July
Small Blue Butterflies and Kidney Vetch. You can see how I drew this on my YouTube channel. As always, I love drawing Irish wildlife and even more so, researching it before I draw it.
Small Blue Butterflies are tiny and rare. They're not very blue, although the males do have a scattering of iridescent blue scales. Their caterpillars feed only on Kidney Vetch which was named for the shape of its pods.
This month I've also set up an Instagram account and, for the more businessy side of things, a LinkedIn page, so I've been a busy bee!
There are some new stockists so check the stockists page to see if any have appeared near you. (They all sell beautiful ranges of other things too).
June
Not new designs as such, but new to the online catalogue - this month I've added mostly romantic and wedding designs, and one Jinny Joe (a child's name for dandelion seedheads).
WeatherHearts and FlowersLe ChéileJinny JoeWedding PartyWedding BowerWedding Butterflies
April
This month I was working on a really nice project, illustrating various flowers and plants for a banquet theme.
The snores of hedgehogs. This line is taken from The Living Countryside, a 1980s wildlife magazine, issues of which were always scattered around my home growing up.A little drawing I did last year and which features on the 2023 Klee Wallplanner for the days surrounding Christmas.November 2023 Winter hillOctober 2023 A pumpkin carriageSeptember 2023 Meadow. A Tortoiseshell Butterfly flies over a summer meadow with Harebell, bright gold Lady's Bedstraw, Bush Vetch, Queen Anne's Lace, Red Clover, Dandelion, Self-Heal, Pyramidal Orchid, Field Scabious, Germander Speedwell and Herb Robert. I based this meadow on a hill in Tymon Park in Dublin.
I drew this picture for a school booklet, Bright Start, produced by Eireamhóin.
Peatlands Wallplanner. I designed this for Klee Paper (ecoland.com) who produce a wallplanner each year. I don't sell these but you can buy them from Klee here, and also order them in bulk with your organisation's logo: https://ecoland.com/2/384/#PROD3703
The theme was the flora and fauna of Irish bogs. As always, it was a pleasure to research the wildlife of a particular ecosystem.
August 2023 Viviparous Lizard, or Common Lizard. The only reptile native to Ireland, these lizards are to be found in many habitats, from gardens to peat bogs. They are tiny, about the thickness of a pencil. As with other tiny creatures, looking closely at them draws us into another world, where moss forms bushes and twigs become small trees. A fragment of fallen bark is a craggy outcrop, and on it the little lizard has become a dragon, surveying its kingdom with a genial face.
May 2023
Sundews. These beautiful plants live on bogs. They are carnivorous and feast on unwary insects. The sweet, sticky droplets that lure and trap their prey also catch the sunlight, and often makes their scarlet tipped leaves glitter like rubies.Bog asphodel, cross-leaved heath, and a Large Heath butterfly.The brown female hen harrier flies with her blue-grey mate over moorland.
April 2023
An Irish hare among heather, bog-cotton and toad rushes.A frog leaps over some sphagnum moss. Sphagnum is the building material of bogs. As new moss grows on top of old, the moss beneath slowly transforms into peat. Sphagnum grows bog at a rate of one millimetre depth a year. Peat only a metre deep was formed around the time of the Vikings.
March 2023
Marsh Fritillary and Devil's Bit Scabious. The Marsh Fritillary is the only insect in Ireland which is legally protected. This beautiful butterfly lays its tiny yellow eggs on the foliage of the Devil's Bit Scabious, which is so named because its root was supposed to have been bitten off by the devil.The Diving-Bell Spider creates a bubble for itself underwater, where it can sit breathing air and watching potential prey swim by. The bubbles are very beautiful, as is the spider itself - often a rich reddish brown with a velvety abdomen. I've always found the idea of them mysterious and romantic. Their genus name Argyroneta translates as 'spinner of silver'.The moon over Carlingford Lough.
February 2023
One of our two pet greyhounds basking in the sun. Our other greyhound is poking her snout out from the grass further down the garden.
This was based on a Dublin park. Three young boys play football after school on a Spring evening.
January 2023
I based this on a photo I took of my husband and one of our dogs, last summer. Greyhounds are very affectionate and this one likes nothing better than to lie beside you on the sofa.Daffodil Park. I based this on a park in Crumlin which has large daffodil beds in Spring. Moonlit Park. I based this on another part of the same Crumlin park. In winter the lights from surrounding houses and the street peek through the bare trees.Pigeons Flying. One of my favourite things is to watch a flock of pigeons, glittering white and grey against the sky, shining like a shoal of fish. I haven't managed to paint them like that yet, but here they are silhouetted against a bright early Spring sky.
