This month we are pleased to welcome John Pilkinton as our Featured Artist. British based John is a former photographer and modelmaker who has since returned to his love of drawing. This led to the creation of ‘Les Grimoires du Faerie‘, John’s attempt to communicate with the unseen and largely ignored worlds. His work combines artistic nudes with the odd nod to art nouveau, in a very striking graphic style. John will be exhibiting in the Brick Lane Gallery, London as part of the Art in Mind Exhibition series 10-23rd April 2012.

This month we are pleased to welcome John Pilkinton as our Featured Artist. British based John is a former photographer and modelmaker who has since returned to his love of drawing. This led to the creation of ‘Les Grimoires du Faerie‘, John’s attempt to communicate with the unseen and largely ignored worlds. His work combines artistic nudes with the odd nod to art nouveau, in a very striking graphic style. John will be exhibiting in the Brick Lane Gallery, London as part of the Art in Mind Exhibition series 10-23rd April 2012.

Perfect for the fast approaching Samhain (Halloween), a night when the veil between this world and faerie is thin, is this tale from StoryFolkSinger Paul C Newman. How Pwyll met Rhiannon is taken from the Mabinogion, the collection of Welsh pre-Christian mythology. In the best Bardic tradition Paul tells the tale with musical accompaniments, bringing the magic of this ancient story to life. Each full moon Paul releases another collection of stories and songs which you can listen to on the StoryFolkSinger website.

Perfect for the fast approaching Samhain (Halloween), a night when the veil between this world and faerie is thin, is this tale from StoryFolkSinger Paul C Newman. How Pwyll met Rhiannon is taken from the Mabinogion, the collection of Welsh pre-Christian mythology. In the best Bardic tradition Paul tells the tale with musical accompaniments, bringing the magic of this ancient story to life. Each full moon Paul releases another collection of stories and songs which you can listen to on the StoryFolkSinger website.

OK, so we all know faeries like to dwell in ancient hollow hills, but these amazing man-made dwellings may well entice them to move house. We’ve previously featured this ‘hobbit’ house built in Wales, but what about the Little Retreat in Northamptonshire – a little thatched cottage with interiors created with tree branches, pinecones and leaves. Or Jon Brook’s colourful and organic New Hampshire home, or an Earth Lodge in Johannesburg, South Africa. Gnomes might like the Göreme Cave Village in Turkey (known locally as the Fairy Chimneys), or the House of Stone in Portugal. Finally, another real life Hobbit house was built to house the owner’s collection of Tolkein manuscripts, directly inspired by the descriptions in the books. …But never mind the Faeries, I’d quite like to live in these places myself!

(With thanks to Curious Places for originally featuring many of these places. Please visit this amazing blog for a feast of unusual, curious and downright bizarre architecture.)