I’ve not updated this blog for a very long time. I thought I’d mention Chloe who was a little calico cat who lived on the streets for a number of years before I adopted her. She sadly passed away recently but I wanted to give her a place here. Milly, my other cat died about seven years ago. I wanted to remember my two beautiful friends here. I’ll always have room in my heart for them.

The postman turned up with these this morning. It’s lovely to see my art on the final products.

I’m not going to leave out my cat Milly.

Here she is with some of my work so that I can validate her presence.

I suppose I’d better include some photos of me so you know who’s blethering.

I went to the London Film And Comic Con last year and met some lovely people.

Here’s me getting excited about meeting Patrick Ness.

Better lighting

 

When I left the design agency I carried on illustrating my books. Then it all went a bit quiet for a while as things do. During this time my dad passed away unexpectedly so I returned to my home town to help my mum with her busy guesthouse which she has been running since 1975. I continue to help her run the business to this day. We get quite a lot of emails from Channel Four asking if we would like to appear on Four In A Bed. Very unlikely as we’ve watched too many episodes to want to even contemplate such a thing. 

Here’s our house – Hawthorn House Hotel in Kettering.

That’s my mum posing in the car-park next to some fancy cars.

Mum modelling one of my aprons.

When I first started out as a freelance illustrator I found myself working in house for a design company called Display Art. I was thrown in at the deep end when it came to learning my way around a Mac but I soon got the hang of it. The company’s main client was Tesco and the majority of my illustrations were used for point of sale. I would be asked to produce visuals and final art. My work could be seen in above fixture displays, end gondolas, shelf stripping, window displays, bags and the backs of receipts. During my time there we did all the special holidays including Christmas. I remember being asked to produce artwork for the first Tesco Direct initiative. I produced illustrations for posters and a mousemat which acted as promotional aids.  

Shopping was a lot more interesting for me back then.

I guess this will be the place to put photos of my artwork that has appeared on various pieces of merchandise.

I will begin with some of the older stuff and then, as new work appears in the big wide world (hopefully), I will post more photos.

Here are some of the children’s books I illustrated.

The teddy bear and bunny books were published by David Bennett Books and they mark a wonderful few years in my life when I met and worked with some lovely people.

Some were pull-the-tab books and I enjoyed the challenge of working with the paper engineer to create some fun ideas that the children would enjoy.

I have also illustrated school books for The Oxford University Press and Harcourt Education as well as book covers for The Women’s Press.