Burntisland-based illustrator and designer Emma Airnes provides a visual exploration of line and pattern through a mixture of traditional materials and digital techniques. Her decorative use of pattern is her unequivocal, distinct signature across prints, cards, notebooks, and enamel mugs.

Exploring the outdoors with her young family provides a treasure trove of discovery. Each artwork is an original and has either been hand-drawn, painted or created using digital techniques to create an exquisite and authentic experience of the Fife Coastal Path’s birds, flora, and fauna.

Processes and experimental mark making play an important role in her creative development, and this is also something she looks to cultivate in others through teaching. It was a natural, almost organic progression for Emma to develop work that focuses on bringing the wonders of nature into the home - sharing that love with others and the next generation.

The name Bumbumbee originates from trying to explain Bumblebees to an inquisitive two-year-old. Often these childlike interpretations just stick in a family and it’s a lovely reminder to see the wonders of nature through children’s eyes.

Emma graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design with a BDes (Hons) and is a secondary teacher in Art and Design.

Be creative. Be inspired. Be an individual… but most of all be kind