Iso Paskin Orr is a mixed media artist whos work explores humour, nostalgia, and storytelling through playful and often irreverent imagery. What began during the Covid-19 lockdowns as a light-hearted project (drawing friends’ dogs smoking cigarettes) quickly evolved into Tobacco Dogs, an ongoing creative practice fuelled by growing commission requests and a desire to explore broader artistic ideas and personal passion projects. Working across ink, watercolour, acrylic, and oil, they combine contemporary illustration with found vintage materials, often incorporating antique cigarette cards sourced from markets and collectors across the UK.

For the exhibition Here and There, Iso focused on themes of travel, memory, and escapism. A large acrylic-on-canvas smoking dog “on holiday” features within the collection; as smoking dogs were the starting point of the practice, it felt important to include a slightly eccentric piece that acknowledges those origins. Alongside this, they have carefully assembled a collection of vintage ski-themed cigarette cards—small fragments of history that once travelled tucked inside cigarette packets.

The Winter Scenes collection draws inspiration from travel, fashion editorials, stillness, and the quiet simplicity of snowy landscapes. These small moments feel cinematic, peaceful, and nostalgic all at once. Blending humour with nostalgia, the works aim to be both playful and sentimental, capturing moments, places, and personalities with a sense of character and curiosity.

This exploration continues in the Between Shores collection, which features vintage cigarette cards depicting boats and coastal scenes, layered with delicate painted illustrations of buoys, swimmers, and sailing boats. The collection reflects on the experience of crossing seas in pursuit of travel, holidays, and escape. For the artist, the smell and sound of the sea are deeply intertwined with movement and memory. Whether standing on the shoreline at home on the Isle of Wight with family or somewhere entirely unfamiliar abroad, that same feeling of calm and stillness remains.