Making up stories in Seven Stories

This week I visited Portway Infant School in Andover. It was a lovely school and I met nice teachers. I felt very welcome and had a great day.

For the next couple of days I tried to catch up with my illustrations and work.

At the weekend I went to Seven Stories in Newcastle. If you’ve never been before you must go. It’s a great place to visit with children or without. Plenty to see and do for everybody who loves books for children.

I was supposed to do a talk for children on Saturday at 3pm, but my four and half hour journey by train took nine hours.  We were involved in a bad accident on the way and so my event had to be cancelled. It was the first time ever I’ve had to cancel an event. I felt bad letting down the children who came to see me, but there was nothing I could do. I will do my best to come to Seven Stories again soon.

So I was late, but I was welcomed by lovely Lorna from Seven Stories, who took me out for dinner and showed me a bit of Newcastle.

The next day I did a master class. The room was full of adults who were keen to make illustrations with me.

I’m used to working with children and students, but knowing that all these people are actually mostly artists themselves was a bit nerve-racking. I did some talking, showing sketches and books, demonstrating how I print and draw. The people who came were very nice and the whole day had a great atmosphere. It was so nice to see everybody being so creative.

We did some mono prints in the morning and then used the prints for collaging the pictures.

A rather tidy room changed into a proper studio in no time.  I had a feeling that everybody enjoyed themselves. Well nobody walked out, that’s for sure.

I liked how we all used similar materials, but the results were very different.

Have a look at some of the great books and pictures we created.

As I said I had a great time and it was very inspiring for me to see the variety of different approaches in dealing with a similar subject.

I would like to say THANK YOU to Seven Stories for inviting me and for organising my event so well. Thank you Lorna and thank you Sue for all your help and support during the day!