Dundee’s location is the best! I love that I can be in the city, on the beach or in the countryside so quickly. I love to get out in the fresh air and be inspired by what I see! Here are some of my top places to walk and explore.
Broughty Ferry Beach is a regular spot for me and Rhubarb the dog. I’m always on the lookout for interesting colours, textures and patterns and Rhubarb is on the lookout for crabs! You can sometimes spot dolphins too if you’re lucky!
Barnhill Rock Garden always looks great with an abundance of textures of plants and flowers. Visocchis is a must for an ice cream and Jessies Kitchen for lunch or coffee and I highly recommend their strawberry tarts! Pretty Fly is great for gifts or treating yourself. You can pick up some of my Dundee Delights products there – prints, tea towels, cards, pins, bags and notepads!
7 Arches walk is part of the Monifieth Path and is great for exploring along the banks of the Dighty. On my walks I’ve spotted deer and love the wildflowers plus listening the the songbirds early in the morning.
Somewhere I’m going to check out is the Spaces for Places in Union Street as it’s now pedestrianised with planters and outdoor seating just next to the penguin sculptures. You can explore some of the streets you don’t normally go down part of the Open Close Trail in the city centre, and you can do it in Stobswell too. I love that this project brings colour and art to the city! My favourite doors are Jen Collins next to Forte cafe on Dura Street and Lindsay Brown owl on a wee lane behind Albert Square.
There are some new murals down near the V&A Dundee of the whales and check out the amazing artwork of Fraser Gray and Martin McGuinnes on the legs of the Tay road bridge. You can read more about it here.
On a clear day The Law is great for 360 degree views of the city, and going uphill really gets those leg muscles going but I do admit I’ve driven up to the top too! Balgay Hill walk up to the observatory (not currently open) is nice and you can go over the blue bridge to the graveyard. I love seeing the highland cows and great views over the river Tay on the Riverside Nature Trail.
As a student I used to spend lots of time drawing the cacti in the glass houses at the Botanical Garden and its a lovely place to wander amongst the range of trees and plants in their outdoor space.
Further afield Crombie County Park is a perfect length of walk amongst the trees around the loch. For me it’s really inspiring and I have lots of photos of things that inspire me from here! Monikie Country Park is great for feeding the ducks (they like peas and seeds instead of bread) and you can pick up an ice cream or coffee from Byzantium Cafe.
Kinshaldy Beach has the great combination of the beach and the woodland area, and check out the Crepe Shack if it’s there too. East Haven beach past Carnoustie has such a picturesque feeling.
For those of you who like the water I’ve seen some really cool pics from people going on the Outdoor Explore trips on the river Tay and Clunie loch.
I’ve always got my camera capturing some inspiration for my designs everything from wildflowers, textures to patterns in the sand. My designs bring into focus the positives to capture a sense of place so it connects people to the local area. You can read more about my design work here.
Recently I’ve been inspired by the wildflowers growing during lockdown and started to add this into my Dundee Cityscape. You can see the full Dundee Delights collections here with free postage on all orders.
Here in Scotland its tradition on Hogmanay (New Years Eve) to give a first foot gift after midnight. Traditionally gifts would be whisky to represent financial prosperity and good cheer, a lump of coal to represent warmth and to keep the fire burning, or a black bun or shortbread to symbolise that the receiving family would not go hungry during the forthcoming year.
I’m delighted to have painted a penguin on the Maggie’s Penguin Parade. Number 64 on the trail map, next to the 5 penguin sculptures. It’s great to be part of the trail of 80 penguins to find in Dundee and surrounding areas and the money raised is for Maggie’s Dundee. You can find out more about it 
During the month of January I took part in Fun A Day, where you do something fun every day. I wanted to explore and play with an idea with no defined outcome to see where it takes me. Adapting the ‘Five Currant Buns’ nursery rhyme as a starting point. I went on a journey and did some sketches of bakers shops, ink drawings, illustrations, patterns and then focused on creating a range of paper cuts of local shop fronts and all cool things they sell. I love local independent shops on the high street. 
The exhibition opens on Friday 13th April at 7pm, and is on over the Saturday and Sunday from 10am – 7pm at Gallery space, 4th floor, WASPS Studios, Meadow Mill, Dundee, DD1 5BY. The exhibition will have an eclectic mix of projects that happened in January.
A few of the things I created during Fun A Day will be developed in the future, I can imagine a range of illustrations to a 5 Dundee Cakes in the bakers shop counting book. Doing the paper cuts allowed me to think about the positive and negative space and keep designs quite simple. I’ve been playing with these by adding colour and texture since January. Here are some test pieces
Patterned sand looking over to Broughty Ferry castle with a happy sun shiny Dundee cake sky, evoking memories of days at the beach.
The characterful 5 bronze penguins by sculptor Angela Hunter that make people smile as they walk past and sometimes they have been known to adorn clothes and hats.
Local delicacy of the Dundee Cake, with the lovely pattern of the almonds on top.
Maggies Centre designed by world renowned architect Frank Gehry here in the city which I believe is evidence of how good design changes peoples’ lives providing a place of calm, support, nurture and tranquility created within a purposeful space. Externally, I enjoy the shape and movement of the roof which I feel echoes the local landscape.
Creative and cultural hub in Dundee with the curved face of different surfaces which is invites you in to the space which houses 2 cinemas, print studio, galleries and a bar and a restaurant.
Dundee’s art gallery and museum in the fantastic gothic revival architecture, I love dramatic staircase and the detail in the architecture. So many stories lye within this building I particularly love the ceramics, Dundee and the World exhibitions and the Tay whale.