Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts

Sunday, 17 January 2016

Snow Cat



❄️ Let it #snow, let it snow, let it snow... by Alison Day

The proverbial cat on the mat and debut venture into using an iPad app that's been staring at me for over half a year.
The transition from bamboo pen, my tool of choice for the computer, to big, fat, clumsy finger, slapping the screen and producing, albeit amature—an amusing doodle. And, when all is said and done, who is the cat on the mat? He or she doesn't resemble either of my two cats. Although one of the two, I'm owned by is a black and white cat called Missy.

Missy came from the sanctuary—a work in progress, was so frightened when she came to live with us that she started her residency in a cupboard in my study. At mealtimes, she would fly in, Zeppelin-like to devour her food, after which she would flee to her hideout again. The cat in the cupboard scenario continued for six whole weeks. On the odd occasion, if we met between rooms, she would literally run for her life, with a terrible scrabbling, scratching noise of her claws attempting to get a grip on the dark, wooden, parquet floors.

Finally, after six whole weeks of this crap and sporting an enormous scratch on my arm for good measure, I extricated her from the cupboard with a broom—permanently. It was then I discovered she was in fact a black and white cat, as opposed to all black and she had four legs as well. On that day, I told her in no uncertain terms that she needed to shape up, or she'd be going back!

It was as though she understood.

Our first contact was on the stairs. I hesitantly extended a forefinger in her direction, accompanied by a hopefull: 'Fingee?' This in turn was nervously accepted by a moist, black nose.



That was three years ago now and although Missy will always remain a nervy cat, these days, after a right royal trampling on my lap, to check we're still friends, in the evenings, she snuggles up next to me on the red sofa, sprawled out on her special woolly rug—I draw and she sleeps.



© Alison Day 





Tuesday, 30 December 2014

Eternal Renaissance





In the gravel car park of Wytham Woods, we head for a tall wooden gate. On the way we pass other Christmas walkers, with their hatted heads, booted feet and festive cheer. Unrestrained by its turquoise rope lasso, the gate yields to a light push swinging out into a field of long, tufted grass. The path is slippery with mud, so we follow the long tresses of its edges. The landscape undulates upwards towards a cluster of trees on the horizon.







The air is fresh and clean and I feel my lungs gasping greedily with the effort as my boots slide out from underneath me. Shrubbery, green fields and bare wintery trees surround us. The decorative dots of sheep, barely visible buildings and a white mass—The John Radcliffe Hospital, are part of the patchwork landscape.
Along the way, we greet friendly-faced walkers. Facial contours forgotten, fading almost as instantly as the time in which it takes us to pass by. At the top, through a metal gate that closes automatically behind us and into a tunnel of bare-branched trees connected at their tips. Dark, naked and silent waiting for the Renaissance of Spring.





A path has been cleared through the thick blanket of fallen and browning leaves. Twisted and gnarled limbs cavort around us. Fallen trunks are clothed in rich, green moss and the landscape falls away suddenly into a small valley, only to rise again a little further on, at journey's end. This is marked by a bench, facing a gated view from a raised stone plinth. Growing nearby, a pair of tree trunks like lovers intricately entwined, stretch skywards. It is here, three and 13 years ago, three siblings scattered the ashes of their parents to the winds—with a tear in their eye and pain in their hearts.

Silently, on this cool December morning, we absorb the familiar and favoured view of Oxford once more—a place that was the centre of their world and ours—for a while.



Photos © Alison Day
  

© Alison Day 

Saturday, 3 December 2011

Thursday, 7 April 2011

Connections Cover Spring issue #31 2011


Cover of the Spring Connections with the theme of Entrepreneurs.


First published in the Connections magazine #31 Spring 2011, a publication of Connect International

View all issues of Connections HERE (editor, designer, illustrator: 2006-2013)




Connections Cover Winter issue #30 2011


Cover for the Winter Connections with a theme of Global Nomads


First published in the Connections magazine #30 Winter 2011, a publication of Connect International

View all issues of Connections HERE (editor, designer, illustrator: 2006-2013)


Saturday, 26 February 2011

London Fashion Week - Florian Jayet




Illustrations of a couple of the designs at the Florian Jayet show. London Fashion Week (LFW) A/W 2011. They accompany Helen Martin's article about the collection, which you can read here: Amelia's Magazine.





© Alison Day Feb 2011
Alison Day Design 






Thursday, 10 June 2010

Connections Magazine - Winter #22, 2009


Cover Connections Winter issue 2008



First published in the Connections magazine #22 Winter 2009 

View all issues of Connections HERE (editor, designer, illustrator: 2006-2013)