Over the last year I’ve done a lot of painting with Herbie. He’s everything from painting on he floor wearing nothing but his nappy, to sitting at my desk and painting with watercolours in a sketchbook. I talk to a lot of parents who say they would love to do painting with their toddlers but they don’t know where to start, so I thought I would share some of my top tips. I am not an expert, but I’m an artist and mum and this is what has worked for us. Try paint One of the first art materials we normally give toddlers is chunky crayons because they are easy to hold and they don’t make too ..read more

  I’ve done a little recap of the year because I wanted to take a moment to look back on the projects I’ve completed. I often find that when I’m working on a project I can’t share it because it’s top-secret, and then by the time the work comes out I’m onto something else, so often I forget to even share the work that I’ve done! So it’s nice to look back and reflect on a year full of book covers, greetings cards, editorial illustration, books and online courses. I have decided to divide this round up into seasons, becuaes I honestly cannot remember what I did last year and month by mo ..read more

I’ve just got back from a little holiday in Norway. We booked flights very spontaneously and we had a wonderful five days staying with friends in Stavanger. We hiked in the woods, went to the beach, visited the city and I even have time to do a little bit of painting whilst Herbie napped. I bought my neocolor pastels with me which encouraged me to sketch in a quicker, looser way. Before I went I picked out 10 colours that I felt were best suited to the Norwegian landscape, lots of blues plus some creams and browns. The only thing is I wish I had more greens, but I made up for that by mixing ..read more

  I am very very excited to invite you to join me on a week long luxury painting retreat in Valencia, Spain! If you’ve been following me for awhile you know how much I love painting, travel and painting on location, so hosting this retreat is an absolute dream for me. We will be focusing on painting and drawing in our sketchbooks whilst in Spain, using a mixed media approach with watercolour, gouache, coloured pencils and pastels. The retreat will include lots of drawing on location in Valencia old town, on the beach, and at the beautiful villa, as well as masterclasses from me coverin ..read more

  A couple of weeks ago I bought a set of Neocolor wax pastels from Caran d'Ache after seeing lots of people use them on Instagram. I really enjoyed the consistency and feel of them, but the selection of colours definitely wasn’t doing it for me. I always find a rainbow selection of pencils or pastels really uninspiring and usually try to buy colours individually. There’s something about that standard rainbow selection that just doesn’t work for me, every colour is really bright, really intense and they’re all fighting with each other. To me a good colour palette should have subtleties ..read more

  I am very excited to announce that I have a brand-new online course available with Domestika!! I’ve been working on this course with Domestika for quite some time and filmed it in their beautiful Islington studio earlier in the year. This course is all about one of my favourite things, working with gouache in a sketchbook! We look at using gouache, creating different consistencies of paint, creating textures, using different types of brush, colour theory as well as selecting reference photos, sketching and creating a final piece. We also look at how to scan, edit and reproduce your work ..read more

My work has been featured in the beautiful new book Art Supplies, by Uppercase magazine. If you haven’t heard of them, Uppercase produce beautiful magazines and books focused on arts and crafts. This encyclopedia is packed with interviews from artists and artisans who are all united by a deep love of art materials. The photography in the book is just gorgeous, so many luscious colours and textures! It’s such an honour to be included. I love that this close-up photo of my crusty and trusty enamel paint palette has an entire page to itself. Here is a little excerpt from the interview with me. Y ..read more

  I’ve just got back from a holiday to Mallorca and it was truly blissful. It was our first holiday since having a baby and we brought my parents along as reinforcements. I kept my expectations low as I’d heard ‘it’s not a holiday, it’s parenting in a different location’ a million times, but to be honest it was lovely. I think the key was taking it very slowly (and having a 4 to 1 adult to toddler ratio). We didn’t sight-see, we didn’t go to markets or galleries, we didn’t do day-trips and we only ate out three times. We just relaxed and took things at Herbie’s pace and found that with h ..read more

  She is back! I am so excited to announce that Miss Petitfour is back for another adventure! Haven’t heard of her? Let me introduce her, Miss Petitfour is a lover of adventures, tiny cakes and long words, she has sixteen cats and flies through the sky with a magical tablecloth. I was so honoured to be asked to illustrate the second volume of Miss Petitfour stories. I can’t believe it’s been six years since the first book came out! It was so lovely to get reacquainted with Miss Petitfour and her sixteen cats again and immerse myself in her world. Anne Michael has once again written the ..read more

  At the very end of 2020 I had my first baby, Herbie. As a self employed illustrator with book deadlines I’ve had to juggle caring for my son and working since he was very little. A few people on Instagram have asked me how I manage it and I though I’d share my experiences and how I tried to prepare myself and my business. I’ve also asked a few fellow freelance mums who I really admire about their experience. Having a baby is a completely unique experience and it’s different for everybody, but here are some of the things that I’ve done that that have worked for me and some things I wish ..read more