Finding Noelle

During the run up to Christmas last year I took part in a festive art challenge created by the art agent Jehane Boden Spiers from Jehane Ltd. It was called Jehane’s Twelve Days of Christmas and Jehane provided a list of inspiring Christmas prompts for everyone to use to create Holiday artwork throughout December. We were given two days for each prompt to post your artwork on Instagram so it led up beautifully to Christmas Eve. I have to admit I find the pace of most Instagram challenges a bit stressful and have always chosen carefully which I wanted to take part in. However my heart skipped a beat when I saw the list as it read like a magical story to me. So I decided to create a gentle Christmas tale called ‘Finding Noelle’ and used the prompts as the backbone to the illustrations.

The first prompt was ‘City Twinkles’ and I hope the painting speaks for itself and provides the clues to what lies ahead. I hope you can spot St Pauls Cathedral in the distance. I’m a London girl and remember being in awe of St Pauls when we visited with my primary school. The ‘Whispering Gallery’ particularly captured the interest of my eight year old self and the architecture was breathtaking to me. I particularly enjoyed drawing the tin which holds the poinsettia as I collect vintage tins myself.

The next prompt was ‘The Green Forest’ and I created two illustrations for this prompt as I felt I needed to fill in some gaps. I also knew I probably wouldn’t be able to complete all the prompts later on. I loved illustrating the woollen mitten as I love adding the little details like the knitted Russian doll pattern. I wish I could knit well enough to make myself a pair in this design. As you can see from the pictures, Violet and Finch have set off to meet their friend Noelle who has told them to follow the green ribbons. Luna the owl has the first one and the pair realise they will have to follow her through the forest.

So our brave pair make their way through the forest and in an unashamed nod to my love of Narnia; they find themselves pushing through the fir trees and being transported to London still following the owl Luna. I’d love to see how this page would look over a double page spread. The prompt for this illustration was ‘London in the Snow’

This next piece featured the prompts - A Surprise Gift, Christmas Spangles, A Bundle of Toys and Christmas Flower! I did have some more illustrations in mind to use the prompts individually but it was such a busy month so I was pressed for time. So combining them seemed the best option. So our adventurous duo search high and low for green ribbons guided by their magnificent guardian Luna.
As their legs grow weary they notice Luna swoops down and takes rest on a shop sign which is adorned by a beautiful green velvet ribbon. They peer into the shop window…

This piece was probably the most indulgent. I loved creating all the details and it would be fair to say I lost myself in the story. This is why I often struggle with Instagram challenges as I knew all the details like the dolls house being a replica of the shop itself or the book title and engraving under the shop window clues would probably go unnoticed when people scroll through but to me they are too important to not include.

This piece used more than one prompt. This one covers ‘Shining Star’ and ‘Dasher and Dancer’
So after Violet and Finch found their Surprise Gifts (gorgeous new ice skates) they put them on and soon found a very special place to use them. I wonder if Noelle will be there? It was good fun trying to work out how a ice skating cat would look but I think I got away with it!

Our friends had just found another green ribbon tied to a mysterious gate and skated through to finally see✨NOELLE✨🐁 Did you guess Noelle was a mouse? I did leave lots of mousey clues and this is another piece in response to the prompt ‘Shining Star’ and our finale.

If you have been doing your maths you could probably work out I didn’t do all twelve prompts. I did have sketches for the days I missed out but I just ran out of time. I absolutely loved creating the story over the month of December. It was so lovely to create from the heart without any restrictions and it was also so special to take part in the challenge alongside so many talented artists interpreting the same words in their own ways. Also I entered the New Year with several new pieces for my portfolio.

I also turned two of the illustrations into art prints which are now available to purchase in A5 or A4 in my shop. Just click on the image to be whisked there.

If you like the sound of the challenge you can join in this year too as Jehane is hosting it again on Instagram and if you sign up to her newsletter you get the prompts a bit early, yay!

Until next time, take care

Cassandra xx