For the second of my Meet The Maker blogs, I chose Hannah Longmuir. Her work is one of my favourite things in the shop! Hannah’s illustrations are such beautiful studies of nature with such a childlike curiosity and wonder. She keeps sketch journals about Drygrange in the Scottish borders (where she lives) and the places she goes with her kids, the birds and plants they see. Her large wraparound ‘A Garden For Wildlife’ cards in particular are so special and designed to be kept and framed as pieces of art after they have been read.
I really loved reading her answers to my questions and I hope you do too!
1. What’s your favourite plant or flower?
Dandelions! I love everything about them – the shape of the leaves, the way they glow-green in the sunshine, the joy of the yellow flowers and the magic of the seed heads, the resilience, the tenacity.
2. What’s your favourite tree?
I regularly visit a patch of old oaks on the egde of the woodland where we live. I like to sit amongst them with a flask of coffee and my sketchbook.
3. Coast, woods, mountains or meadows — where do you feel most at home in nature?
Well, we live in a woodland and I could draw the trees and the birds here for the rest of my life and never tire of it. The light and the moss and the ferns and the birdsong spark something in me. Buuuut I think my ancestors must have been islanders as I am never happier than on a ferry to a Scottish island, leaning into the wind and salt.
4. What’s your favourite thing to draw, and what drew you to it?
Probably birds. Birds and trees. My dad was a birder, I’ve been watching, loving and naming birds since I was a small girl. They have such personality and spark that is lovely to draw. As do trees, especially in winter when the branches are bare and shapes are revealed.
5. What made you start making?
I’ve been bringing things home to draw since I was a child – feathers, tadpoles, flowers. My mum said I should live in a paper factory rather than a house because I was always drawing. I did have a few years in my late teens/early twenties when I stopped drawing. When I rediscovered creating and making again, it was like a tidal wave. I was obsessed. Within a few months I had quit my job and moved back to the Borders to start some sort of creative business. That was 15 years ago!
6. What does a perfect making day look like for you?
I love a potter-walk with a flask of coffee and my sketching kit. I’m pretty hardy – as long as it isn’t pouring, I’m up for a couple of hours drawing and walking. Then back in the warmth I would work on my pages a bit more, eat some snacks, maybe write a bit. And then I’d have unlimited time to work on a big drawing – I have these Gentle Giants that take me months to draw and I love to sit and get absorbed in the process (while listening to the radio – the dream would be a lot of the Archers to catch up on). Then I’d pick my kids up from school and we’d go for a picnic and I’d get out the sketchbooks and we’d all draw together.
7. What’s the last thing in nature that stopped you in your tracks?
There were so many fish jumping in the river when I was on my walk yesterday!
8. Which season shows up most in your work, and why?
Winter, because of those gorgeous silhouettes. You can see the bones of the landscape in winter.
9. What do you hope people feel when they buy your designs?
I hope they feel connected. Connected to the nature they love, and connected to the people they share my cards and paper goods with.
10. What are you working on right now, or what’s coming next?
This time of year is calendar-design-season for me. I illustrate a wildlife calendar every year, and an accompanying family-sized calendar. All year round I collect and record in my sketchbooks, and write my monthly journal posts, so that in May, when it comes to calendar designing, I have a good resource of ideas and images to pour into the calendars.
I’ve also got a new workshop and studio being built in my back garden, which is very exciting!
You can see all of Hannah’s beautiful cards, notebooks and prints in the online shop
