Education should be fun

Good morning all.
Another busy few weeks gone by, book cover illustrations, private commissions and education.

I have recently started working with a new publisher, One cover is completed and the book, written by Caroline Pitcher is available on Amazon now. In Kindle and book form. Check out 'Mine' By Caroline Pitcher.


Another image for a cover is just finished, for a very special book that I shall tell you about soon.
There is talk of maybe four more covers too.

I have also had two days teaching art at the Ipswich Art School with some of the local primary schools.
The workshops ran alongside the Once Upon a Time exhibition, which sadly ends on 4th May.
Three primary schools came for a visit and the workshops, totalling 165 children!
We worked on large rolls of paper on the theme of The Owl and the Pussycat, most of them knew the poem, we thought about the characters, setting the scene and adding our own elements, like fish and sharks in the water, shells on the beach, shooting stars, rainbows and clouds in the sky. They all were able to take these beautiful pieces of work back with them to their schools to proudly put on their walls.

They were all a joy to work with, beautifully well mannered, enthusiastic and open minded. I was great to see how open their minds were, anything goes when they are young, sometimes I do wonder whether our education system is too regimented, fitting the expectations of government, lacking free thinking. I'd love to get the starchy Mr Gove into an art workshop and loosen him up a bit, open his mind to a broader education experience! Anyway even those who were a tad reluctant at the start went away with dirty hands and smiles. A totally wonderful experience for me too, I'd love to do more workshops with the schools. So a big thank you to those schools involved and the the museum service for asking me to run the workshops.

Well today is a tidy the studio day ready to start sketching up ideas for the next project, one I am really excited about, but keeping under wraps for now.

So here is the tidy(ish) studio, if you are like me, you will love a good nosy around other creatives work spaces, mine is an organised mess really, full of things I love, the beauty of nature collected and of course the view from my studio. How lucky am I?...