MICA / / Eric Leland

Today we are sharing the beautiful work of Eric Leland who I met on a recent work trip to the US! I was lucky enough to get to visit Boston & Baltimore, hang out with the team at the Lilla Rogers Studio & teach some workshops & deliver a public lecture at MICA (Maryland Institute College Of Art). It was such an honour to be invited & to teach at such a wonderful college with talented tutors such as Eric.

Eric's design career began in architecture - he spent five years working in that field in Baltimore, Maryland, & passed his registration exams in 2007. However, at the same time, he was overtaken both by wanderlust & by a growing realisation that he was happiest with the part of his work that involved pencil & paintbrush. Eric & his wife took a leap across the Atlantic, and then enrolled in the postgraduate illustration course at University College Falmouth, in Cornwall, England. Since 2009, Eric has been back in Baltimore, where he has now nearly filled his basement with obsolete letterpress printing equipment. Eric produces & markets his own illustrated greeting cards, calendars, books, prints & paper goods, much of which is printed & bound by hand, by me. For the 2013 - 14 academic year, he is also teaching part time on the Illustration Practice MFA course at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

You can visit Eric's lovely website & his Etsy shop to buy his gorgeous illustrations.

MICA / / Rebecca Bradley

Today we are sharing the gorgeous work of Rebecca Bradley who I met on a recent work trip to the US! I was lucky enough to get to visit Boston & Baltimore, hang out with the team at the Lilla Rogers Studio & teach some workshops & deliver a public lecture at MICA (Maryland Institute College Of Art). It was such an honour to be invited by the talented Rebecca Bradley (Rebecca is also one of Lilla's artists as well as myself, & a fantastic tutor) & to teach at such a wonderful college. 

Rebecca Bradley is British & studied at Chelsea College of art in the UK & Savannah College of Art & Design in the USA. She works full time at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, as well as working freelance as an illustrator. She is represented by 'Lilla Rogers' in the USA & by 'Eyecandy Illustration' in the UK. Partial client list includes 'Penguin Books', the 'Boston Globe', 'The Guardian Newspaper', 'BBC books', 'Chronicle books' and 'Hachette books'. To give you an example of the broadness of assignments that she gets, Rebecca has recently worked on illustrations for the official 'Twlight Guide' & has also illustrated soup packaging for Tesco's stores in the UK!

Below is a selection of her beautiful illustrations. You can find more of Rebecca's work on her blog!

USA Work Trip / / Boston Marina

Today I wanted to share with you some more photographs from recent USA work trip. After visiting the New England Aquarium, I walked along the waterfront & stumbled across some truly amazing colours & textures at the boating marina. I must have spent at least an hour documenting all the imperfections & beauty.

Enjoy! Love Rachael x

USA Work Trip / / Boston Aquarium

Happy Monday everyone!

Today I wanted to share with you a selection of images from my Boston trip. I was lucky enough to squeeze in a full day of sight seeing (on foot) & crammed in so much of the beautiful city. There's nothing better than spontaneously exploring a new place when you have no appointments, time constraints & you can just go where you please. I had such a fun day & managed to visit the wonderful New England Aquarium. There's something truly inspiring about sea life, I've become a huge fan ever since my snorkelling adventures on my recent honeymoon.

(You may also like to read about my meet up with The Lilla Rogers Studio & my sunny visit to a Pumpkin Patch).

Boston Visit / / Lilla Rogers Studio

Happy Monday everyone, I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I'm back from my USA work trip & catching up on things here at the studio. I've a camera crammed full of inspiring imagery to edit & share with you from my sunny visit to Boston & Baltimore.

My trip started with a meet up with the inspiring Lilla Rogers Studio (this was actually the first time I had met Lilla, other than via Skype!). I flew into Boston on the Friday evening & spent the whole of Saturday hanging out with Lilla, we started our morning by chatting about art & design, went on a lovely walk, caught up on ideas & shared our personal experiences from teaching an online e-course. We then went for a lovely lunch in pretty Arlington to then return to the studio where I spent the rest of the day blissfully drawing away. I had such a chilled afternoon & my day was topped off by going out for a yummy meal with Lilla & her friends. I continued creating art on the Sunday & helped Lilla review some of the brilliant design work submitted for her Make Art That Sells e-course. I then spent a fun afternoon with Susan McCabe (one of Lilla's fab agents), we visited Harvard Square, roamed the inspiring streets in Cambridge & managed to watch some of the Regatta on the Charles River.

I caught up with the studio ladies again on the Tuesday evening when Susan kindly hosted a dinner party at her home for myself & the local LRS artists. I was fortunate enough to also meet the talented Alison Cole, Susan Pilgrim Waters & Ann Boyajian & my other fab agent Jennifer Nelson. We had such a brilliant evening it was so nice to meet everyone.

Before I flew out to Baltimore I attended a fun studio meeting where I also got to meet more of the brilliant LRS team; Julia & Patty. It really was a great opportunity to bounce ideas around & chat about our goals & plans for my creative future & design label. I was sad to leave as I enjoyed every minute of my time with them!

Stay tuned as I have lots more imagery to share with you from my Boston visit including my #ABSPD alumni meet up, lots of fun sight seeing & my catch up with Smart Creative Women.

From L to R: Alison Cole, Susan Pilgrim Waters, me & Ann Boyajian