I am very happy to announce that I have just WON the Seven Stories and Frances Lincoln national illustration competition, 'Over the Hills and Far Away.' My artwork will be included in a new nursery rhyme collection to be published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books in the Autumn of 2014.
This anthology is a fresh and inclusive collection of nursery rhymes that has be gathered together from cultures across the English speaking world. Children and families will be introduced to the many diverse voices that speak to the very young in verse - offering readers new sounds, new sights and new ways with words.
The double page spread that I chose to illustrate was an African American and a Maori lullaby. Elizabeth Hammill (Co-founder of Seven Stories) stated that my artwork 'subtly and distinctively wove the two verses together by capturing a night that, like the father's embrace, is immersive and comforting and a place for imaginings of the possibilities that the galloping horses offer. There is a tenderness too in the father/baby relationship that is true and moving. The father/child are both specific to these rhymes but absolutely universal too.'
The collection will also include some 70 illustrators from across the English speaking world including: Michael Foreman, Robert Ingpen, Shirley Hughes, Jane Ray, Bob Graham,
Nick Sharett, Eric Carle, Axel Scheffler, Shaun Tan, Emily Gravett, Catherine Rayner,
Polly Dunbar, Sara Ogilvie, Jessica Ahlberg, Mini Grey, Yasmeen Ismail, Joel Stewart,
John Lawrence and Kevin Waldron.
