Katie's Picture Show

Book now for little Bookniks Festival

2012-01-27T17:33:00.002Z

Come along to the Jewish Museum on February 5th 12 - 2.30

020 7284 7384

What Katie Did Next!

2011-12-21T07:10:00.005Z

Earlier this year I suggested that Katie and the Starry Night was to be the last book. This seems to have caused a bit of a kerfuffle. And it seems I may have to add the sentance ... "for a while". To be fair I have always said "Never say never!". And so Katie is only hibernating after all.

To tell you the truth: I need a little break from making Katie books. I have been working on them for almost a quarter of a century!

And yet... a recent visit to the Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh reminded me of how many fantastic paintings there are: I've never done a book on portaits! That might be fun (I thought). And so a seed is sewn...

Meanwhile, Katie is doing well all around the world: apparently the Japanese were especially worried about her future: worry not! If more books are really wanted, and when the right project surfaces, it will be impossible to resist!

Good news for American readers! The rights were tied up for many years in the USA and for nearly a decade no new books could be published there. The rights are now all returned to my British publisher who will now investigate a possible new US deal.

And the really big news is that Splats Entertainment, after many months of presenting Katie theatre workshops in schools, are beginning in earnest to adapt Katie and the Mona Lisa as a stage show. I will be working on the sets myself and trying to really create an illusion of art coming alive for children. A wonderful extention of the idea that started it all in the first place.

Merry Christmas everyone, and... watch this space!

Portrait Gallery Reopens!

2011-11-26T16:22:00.004Z

After a lengthy closure, the scaffolding is down, and the spectacular Venetian-style Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh is set to reopon next week. Katie visits the gallery with Nessie in Katie in Scotland, but it was very much an imaginary view, as I've never been and couldn't go during my research trips due to building work.

But that all changes on December 5th when I return to Edinburgh to launch the Art In Schools competition, supported by Tesco Bank. It's a great honour to have been invited to do this, at such a historical time in the gallery's history. And a lovely thing to support as well; after all, it was an art competition (to create a portrait of Nessie for this very gallery) that got the ball rolling with Katie in Scotland. I love any incentive that encourages children to make art, and I'm sure this will lead to some wonderful pictures...

Meanwhile, moving pictures... of another kind

2011-11-12T05:20:00.003Z

While Katie hibernates, I have been busy with all sorts of different projects. Some are too new to announce. I always worry about jinxing things! But the main thing on my mind has been the two children's concerts, in Saffron Walden and Hatfield. Here are a couple of pictures of the Sinbad and Scheherazade concert at the latter. Here I am painting away to The Sea and Sinbad's Ship - the first movement of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. The pictures shift and change to the music. I guess it's another way of bringing art alive for children.

The proof pages (first practise printing) of Katie & the Starry Night are in, and everything is looking just fine, which I'm delighted about. Publication is scheduled for next summer.

Meanwhile, I am very excited to announce that I have been invited back to Edinburgh in early December to launch the Tesco Bank Art Competition for schools at the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland. The gallery is newly refurbished, after being closed for several years. It will be a spectacular sight to see, fully restored, and I'm incredibly honoured to have been asked to do this. Originally they asked Nicola Benedetti, but she was busy. I hope they know I can't play the violin!

Happy Birthday Kate!

2011-10-04T08:45:00.004+01:00

Well, she'll probably strangle me for posting this, but the ORIGINAL Katie - my sister Kate - is FIFTY years old today. But she'll always be six and a half in my imagination!

Here's a photo of our first trip to London - at the zoo - back in the 1960s. Happy faraway days. Who'd have thought that cheeky little girl would inspire a million-selling series of books from her kid brother eh?

Time's winged chariot flies so fast these days. You can't spend your life looking back. But today, I think I might be allowed to think of the games we played in our big Bramley apple tree; the earwig ridden treehouse; the "lapin" family; Dolly Darlings; playing "Shazzan" in the hammock; trips to Frida's sweetshop; the legendary railway-messenger-service between our rooms... and for a million other memories and a lifetime of stories: thanks Kate! And here's a song, just for you:
MY SISTER KATE (Click Here!)

Cover up

2011-09-19T20:16:00.002+01:00

The cover is approved and here is a glimpse of how it Katie & The Starry Night will look. I'm also posting the final endpapers, created by my son (in the style of Katie of course) with help from a few friends (and his Dad!). I think they are my favourite thing in the book, and it's a shame they will be missing from the paperback.

Now the proofs will be made ready for the Frankfurt Book Fair in October... although with European economics as they are, I don't have any particular expectations.

Katie in Scotland makes some new friends!

2011-09-16T14:50:00.003+01:00

Here are a pair of Ella Bella fans, who travelled all the way from Glasgow to Hatfield for last year's Ella Bella concert, and who popped up in Edinburgh in August to say hello and discover Katie at the National Gallery of Scotland.

Madison and Charlotte seemed to like Katie too, thank goodness, and it was lovely to catch up with the delightful Davidson family. They sent the stunning Crystal Champagne glasses a while back, created by Glencairn Crystal and engraved with Katie and Ella Bella. I wrote about them on my other blog (see HERE).

Now that Katie is properly finished, perhaps tonight's the night to get out my Katie glass and have a tipple to celebrate. Do you think it would matter if I used Whisky instead of Champagne...?

Star gazing...

2011-09-13T08:23:00.004+01:00

Here it is then. Subject to approval, this is the cover of the last Katie book, scheduled to be published in August 2012. Also, you can see the endpapers created together with my son and inspired by a sketch in ink that Vincent van Gogh did, of the Starry Night composition.

And next? Well I have a thousand and one ideas... but immediately I 'll be working on the two concerts I have scheduled this autumn, Peter & The Wolf and Scheherazade (see events panel to the right). And then it will be full steam ahead on the new Ella Bella book. But there are other plans as well... some involving Katie. So I'll keep you posted regularly!

Sourcing Scheherazade's Stories...

2011-08-27T13:39:00.004+01:00

I've a feeling November will be here faster than I think, so I'm busy researching and learning stories from the Arabian Nights for this exciting concert with my regular collaborators, the de Havilland Philharmonic. I adore this music and I think it will be a really special, magical afternoon. As usual with my children's concerts, I'll be illustrating the tales live on stage as the orchestra plays. Expect swashbuckling stories about Sinbad and magical tales of geniis, princesses and monsters!

The concert, in Hatfield (just outside North London) will be my fifth with this orchestra and Robin Browning. I hope some of you can come along and join in the fun... and hear some fabulous music... and some amazing stories. You'll even have a chance to WIN one of the pictures I'll be creating during the concert!

Booking opens on Tuesday August 30th.

Box office: 01707 281127

CLICK HERE FOR THE THEATRE WEBSITE

Katie celebrations in Edinburgh

2011-08-21T12:52:00.009+01:00

It was such a joy to be back in my favourite city in the world, and a rainbow filled the sky to welcome me. Naturally Katie In Scotland was the main focus, and my first event was at the Book Festival, involving all sorts of monsters, Loch Ness or otherwise. It was a very funny event, with children coming closer and closer to the stage until it became almost a siege of ideas for monsters and lots of laughter. It felt like a slightly crazy but very funny and happy hour.

That evening, the wonderful Sarah Bennett from Orchard Books had organised a lovely dinner with guests from the Scottish Book Trust, the Book Festival commitee, reviewers from The Scotsman and Carousel (Val Bierman who established the Children's Book Festival), and of course my dear friends from the National Galleries of Scotland: Linda and Colin. Spectacular views of the Castle (complete with fireworks) formed an ideal backdrop for a tremendous celebration of Katie.

And then a couple of days later a whole day of events at the National gallery of Scotland were wonderfully well attended, superbly organised by Linda (the dedicatee of Katie in Scotland!) and felt like the icing on the cake. In fact cake is exactly how Sarah and I rounded things off, in the gallery cafe (jolly good hot chocolate and carrot cake!). I just love this gallery, and the openess with which they embrace events for children which is utterly unique. No other gallery does it as well in my experience.

Outside flame-throwers dazzled... while inside, one of my favourite places in the gallery is a stair case with dozens of busts, reminding me of Cocteau's 1946 film "La Belle et La Bete".

The biggest thrill of the day at the gallery was to meet so many children who had entered the Loch Ness Monster competition, and to see their work exhibited in the gallery. From idea to conclusion, this project has taken a long time and a lot of work from many people, especially those at Orchard Books and the gallery. It was lovely, then, that so many children came to meet me at the public storytellings and join in a celeberation that was their triumph as much as Katie's. Imagine being a nine year old girl and having your work published and exhibited (with 19 other runners up) in the NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART in Edinburgh!!!

That girl was Piper and it was a particular pleasure to meet her and her lovely family, who very thoughtfully gave a parcel containing various souvenirs (I was especially pleased with the tartan hip-flask; I've always wanted one!).

All the runners-up got a copy of Katie In Scotland, donated by Orchard Books. I think they all felt very special. I was also thrilled to meet, again, my friends from Glasgow, the Davidsons. They are the family who came from Scotland to Hatfield for last year's Ella Bella concert, and Maddie and Charlotte have now discovered Katie as well! It was also a joy to meet the Mayfields and Anji Spangle, virtual friends made real at last.

It's always strange to return home and get back to work after a week of (lovely) distractions and a very different kind of work. But I do so with warm memories of happy children and enduring friendships.

Farewell Starry Night Skies... and to Katie.

2011-08-12T11:11:00.004+01:00

Apart from a cover design, the 12th Katie book is finished and safely delivered to Orchard Books. They seemed to like it. I'm pretty pleased and think it has something a bit special about it, I must admit. A dream like quality that I'm a tiny bit excited about.

As always when a book is finished, I feel a bit bereft. Nevertheless this feels like a good moment to pause, and so I told my editor yesterday that I have decided that Katie will take a break for a while now. Indeed, it feels like this could be a fitting end to this series.

Katie will not quite disappear from my radar as I will be involved with the Splats Entertainment theatre show of Katie over the next year. And who knows what the future will bring...?

So it may not be farewell, only au revoir...

But after a quarter century of Katie, it feels just a bit like the end of an era.

Nearly there!

2011-08-02T08:55:00.003+01:00

Come on James! You can do it! Step AWAY from the computer and pick up that brush! There's light at the end of the tunnel. One more big push and you'll be there. Think of it... No more early starts and late nights. No more blues and yellows swirling before your eyes. No more thinking about cutting off your own ear. That HAS to be a good thing. So... Go, go, go!

Chromatism in Cromer

2011-07-31T11:35:00.005+01:00

A family holiday in Cromer in the middle of a book isn't ideal, but I duely packed up the illustrations for Katie and the Starry Night to continue "colouring in" the drawings. The flat was booked months ago and the clash was unavoidable. Had the weather been fair it could have been rather a relaxing thing to be painting by the sea. The flat is on the very edge of the land, overlooking the pier, a spectacular view, and it's a place we've rented for several years. But apart from one day, the weather was disappointing, cold, dull and uniformly grey. Disappointing to the family, who were stuck in the flat with me unable to give lifts to places. Me disappointed, as the light was so dreary it was very hard to keep colours pure and consistant.

At least we caught up with our friends, the Salisburys (Martin Salisbury runs the MA in Children's Book Illustration at Cambridge Art School; our respective boys get along famously) and David Hughes, and his wife and Dog Dexter. David is as mad as the day is long, a bit like his brilliant and fearless illustrations, which makes him great company. and it was lovely to meet Dexter in real life...

Progress was made on the book but mixing family and work time really doesn't work for me. I don't think people realise the responsibility the illustrator has, taking care of the final stages of a book, and therefore always squashed for time if scehedules have slipped. It can be tough. Unfortunately a lot of deadlines fall in the summer, because books need to be prepared for the Frankfurt Book Fair in October. So illustrators rarely get a summer holiday of any length. Same at Christmas: January deadlines for the Spring Bologna Bookfair often impact that holiday too. These days one has to be grateful for the work. And I love my job. But right now I sure could use a holiday!

Work in progress: Starry Night

2011-07-21T14:37:00.002+01:00

Lots of distractions - lovely ones - have interrupted the flow with Katie and the Starry Night: The Ella Bella event in Cheltenham was swiftly followed by a giant pop up book at the Pop Up Festival. (Click on the words to find out about them!). But here are a couple of glimpses of how it's coming along. Van Gogh is surprisingly hard to pastiche. There is real rythmn and order to those swirling marks, and following his forms and yet trying to be spontaneous is pretty tricky. No wonder he cut off his ear!

More to follow as my August deadline approches!

Dreaming of wolves

2011-07-13T16:46:00.003+01:00

I should be working on Katie and the Starry Night. But I couldn't resist creating this little poster for a performance this autumn of Peter & The Wolf.

Not only will I be narrating the story, I will also be illustrating it LIVE on stage! Crazy? yes! Fun? you bet!

It takes place in Saffron Walden, a jewel of a town, at 3pm on October 16th.

Wishing on a star...

2011-05-25T15:35:00.004+01:00

Here are a few sketches for the new Katie book. These have been sent to Orchard Books and I'm waiting for their reaction. It's an exciting, creative time, as already some problems in the story have come to light and now I have the task of adjusting my own story to fit the images I want to make. I love having the two work together in this way, hand in glove. That's the real beauty of picture books, where one plays with the delicate balance between word and image, to give the child the best way of following a story, which is as memorable for it's pictures as it's prose. That's certainly my wish!

Starry sketches

2011-05-20T17:20:00.002+01:00

I've almost completed the roughs for "Katie and the Starry Night". As always, the challanges have been to make the gallery interesting and not too predicatable. Not easy when the paintings have to be viewed "face on". That limits interesting perspective somewhat. I'm also not sure where to fit type onto the Starry Night scene. And several pages are being rewritten because now I've started making pictures, the words no longer work. But that's normal! More sketches will follow...

Meet Our Authors (and illustrators)

2011-05-13T19:43:00.007+01:00

Yesterday I was very honoured to be the first illustrator to be invited to participate in the Authors Live events with the Scottish Book Trust. It was the perfect way to launch Katie In Scotland and I had a great time telling legends of pirates that inspired Robert Louis Stevenson and demonstrating how I created my vision of Nessie.

You can watch it HERE on the SCOTTISH BOOK TRUST website.

Thrilling, terrifying, exhausting and I wouldn't have missed it for all the world!

Starry thumbs

2011-05-10T08:19:00.004+01:00

So begins the next book: Katie and the Starry Night. I have mapped out most of it in little thumbnail sketches, and when I've tidied them up I'll send them to Orchard Books. It won't be this week though, as I'm getting ready to go to Glasgow tomorrow for the Authors Live event on Thursday. It's come around so fast! I'm very excited and a bit nervous about being broadcast to thousands of children... Oh well, what's the worst that can happen? (please don't answer that!). There is still time to register if you haven't already. There are also useful teachers' resources on the Scottish Book Trust website. Take a look HERE!

Other Katie news: The theatre show is scheduled to open in North London at Easter 2012. Soon I'll be meeting with a designer to plan how the story can be brought to life on stage in a way that allows the production to move to all kinds of venues on tour. I can't wait!

Katie around the World!

2011-04-28T08:03:00.005+01:00

With only two weeks to go before the AUTHORS LIVE event in Scotland, I'm busy planning exactly what to take, tell and draw. But my thoughts have been interrupted by two exciting things. Firstly, my editor Liz Johnson sent me a message from Florence where she was on holiday. In the Uffizi she saw copies of Katie books. I was thrilled but puzzled, for the books have never been translated into Italian. It turns out they stock the English editions in their gift shop. This is a practise that many international galleries seem to do, as English is the most universal language for their multi-lingual customers.

But in the same week I received advance copies of the new Japanese editions of the Katie books - which got me wondering why some countries translate the stories and some import them in English... But I have no conclusion to reach except that Asian countries are more inclined to translate that European ones.

The very first book, Katie's Picture Show was translated into French as "Drole de Tableaux". But none of the other books followed (I believe the same happened in Holland). Yet in Spain (where Katie becomes "Carlotta") almost all the books are translated into both Spanish and Catalan, while in Brazil and Portugese translation is available and Katie become "Erica". No other European countries have translated them - they all take the English edition.

In the Far East there are now Korean, Chinese Mandarin and Japanese editions. And it has taken 20 years for the latest rights to be sold. Interesting, then, that an old established series continues to have new life; I never expected new territories to be sold at this stage of the game.

Finally, a trick picture. "Katie's Sunday Afternoon" is not a new or forgotten title. It has, however, incurred the wrath of Amazon reviewers because it has been purchased along with "Katie and the Bathers". It is, in fact, the same book. Unfortunately, the American publisher insisted on a new title and cover as "bathing" in America apparently refers specifically to bath-time pursuits, not swimming in a river. So despite the established title of Seurat's painting, "The Bathers at Asniers", I had to bow down to Scholastic in New York and an internal illustration has been used to create "Katie's Sunday Afternoon".

Scholastic have not taken any further titles in the series since that book (2004) and the books are not routinely imported either, so I think they are pretty hard to purchase in stores in the U.S.

They can, of course, be sourced on the internet... should you have any gaps in your collection!

Katie in Scotland - rush released!

2011-03-30T09:29:00.004+01:00

To coincide with the Authors Live event on May 12th, Katie in Scotland will now be published on May 5th! Originally the book was going to be published to dovetail with the Edinburgh Festival in August (and there will still be lots of events and celebrations as planned). It's quite rare for a schedule to move like this and it makes all these events seem even more exciting! I'm already practising for the Scottish Book Trust Meet our Author's programme. Can you guess what I'm going to paint live on camera?

For more information, click here: http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/authors-live-with-james-mayhew

Just Imagine...

2011-03-19T19:14:00.006Z

It's been quite a few weeks with school visits here there and everywhere in celebration of World Book Day. There's more to come, but I wanted to write a little something about one or two in particular.

At St Nicholas School, Norton (Letchworth) I had a particularly fulfilling two days, where the events were so well organised, with brilliant plans for follow up work and imaginative use of my time, it reminded me of why I visit schools and how, if everyone pulls together, there can be real benefits for the children. A model example of an author visit!

This week, despite a nasty cold, I've been to the Oundle Festival, near to where I was born (Stamford) where a large audience is always guaranteed along with a warm welcome. It's a small (and beautiful) town with a top notch festival.

And then today, stifling my cough, I was in Chelmsford where I got to catch up with the truly magnificent Nikki Gamble, who has opened a wonderful bookshop and events venue for children. She's an expert in her field and it shows, because the place itself is brilliantly laid out and my events were expertly organised. I have a feeling this place - called "JUST IMAGINE" will grow and grow in reputation to become an important part of the children's literature, art and education world. I certainly hope so and I would recommend it to anyone who can get to it - just 30 mins from Liverpool St. Station in London.

Amongst the delights is the extraordinary ABC, with illustrated letters by some of the greatest names in book illustration: Alex Scheffler, Chris Mould, my dear friend Clara Vulliamy, Tony Ross... and I'm honoured to be included too - with "E for Easel".

One of the other highlights of today, though, was catching up with an old school friend, Deb, who I have not seen for 30 years! Where does time go? The past, and it's hazy memories are so important in my work, so it was lovely to be reminded of younger and more innocent times. And Deb hasn't changed a bit (while I, meanwhile, have lost all my hair...). the events were part of another festival called JIBBER JABBER, And it seems to have been a great success!

The final highlight was cake, custard and chocolate as a gift from Nikki. Which I will shortly be devouring! Thank you!

Thanks to everyone I've worked with this month. Monday sees the start of a week long residency in another Letchworth School. It's going to be a busy few days!

Katie and the National Gallery Adventure

2011-02-12T12:07:00.004Z

It's been a long process and a lot of hard work. but here it is! In the post this morning, a clutch of copies of the new "Katie" trail, created together with Caroline Marcus for The National Gallery in London, and produced by Orchard Books, my trusty publisher.

Don't forget the launch on February 23rd at the National Gallery, starting at the Orange Street entrance, at 2pm. Free tickets are allocated from 1pm onwards.

Caroline and I will guide 70 people around the National Gallery and tell exciting stories about the five fabulous paintings in the collection that are featured in the trail. there might even be some drawing involved! This is followed by a book signing outside the Sainsbury Wing bookshop at 3.45, so if you miss the trail launch you can come and say hello then.

It should be fun!

Katie's National Gallery Adventure!

2011-01-31T12:03:00.004Z

With just over three weeks to go until the launch of the Katie Trail at the National Gallery in London, the trail is finished and at the printers. Meanwhile, after filling in all sorts of forms, the gallery have sent a small selection of pictures from the October half term workshops. Here's one... this is me in the British gallery (you can just make out Whistlejacket's front legs!) with a sea of people gathered. It was such an exciting week.

The launch of the trail will be a lot of fun as well. It's on Wednesday 23rd February, starting at 2pm in the Education Centre (The Orange street entrance). My lovely co-author Caroline Marcus will join me in a tour of the gallery, telling stories about the pictures and answering questions. Numbers are strictly limited to 70, so please come early.

If you can't make it in time, at 3.45 I'll be off to the Sainsbury Wing bookshop to sign books, so you can come and find me then.

If you have old copies of Katie stories bring them along. Or if you have gaps in your collection, see if the gallery bookshop has that missing title!

Hope to see you there!

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS ON THE NATIONAL GALLERY WEBSITE

Searching for Vincent

2011-01-09T10:55:00.003Z

It's hard to believe that the next Katie book will be the twelfth in the series. The working title is "Katie and the Starry Night" and the focus is the paintings of Van Gogh.

I'm finding it hard to get started for several reasons - even though it's a book I know I will love when I'm underway. It's always hard starting a new story and staring at a blank sheet of paper. But Van Gogh has so much "legend" surrounding his name that it's especially hard to be fresh and child-like in my approach. None of the Katie books really touch on the painter or his life and times. Sometimes a theme will emerge that resonates a little with the themes in the pictures, and I always try to draw that out: So the town and country during the Industrial Revolution were on my mind in Katie and British Artists, so eloquently symbolised in The Fighting Temeraire. The contrast between royalty and peasants was at the heart of Katie and the Spanish Princess, a theme that felt very appropriate with Velazquez and Murillo's subjects in stark contrast.

But with Van Gogh, the themes - as we tend to see them - are more emotional. We see his struggle in the brush-strokes, his mental collapse in the colours. We know of his ear-lobe incident and his suicide. How can they even begin to be touched on?

Can the idea of emotion in paint be a theme for young children? Or is it just too abstract? Ultimately my editor will guide me here. In the end it needs to be a book with child-appeal. There's no point creating a book that no-one wants to read. But I do want to capture something of the man himself rather than just romp through his pictures in an inconsequential way.

I think the theme of stars, night-time, dreams and wishes will be useful ones. They are my starting point at the moment. But who knows which direction the story will go? In the end, I find stories have a mind of their own and I am simply the copywriter.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-20T08:39:00.001Z

Thanks to everyone who helped make Katie's anniversary year so special!

The trialed trail...

2010-12-17T10:03:00.003Z

After trialing the rough sketches for the Katie trail with children and staff, the National Gallery gave me a green light and I have just sent off the finished artwork to Orchard Books, who will assemble, design and print the trail in time for it's launch in the February half-term.

In the 12 page mini-book Katie encounters characters from five wonderful paintings in the National Gallery collection and an empty frame encourages children to find the painting the characters belong in and then draw something in the frame that is inspired by what they see. It sounds simple, but in fact it is incredibly complex.

Firstly paintings that are NOT going to be on loan have had to be chosen, which ruled out a great many canvasses. Then with the co-author, Caroline Marcus, we carefully planned (and replanned!) how the trail would work, what was important for children to notice, what facts were relevent, and so on. But I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to work with Caroline and have found out about some paintings that - if I am honest - I had never really bothered with before.

Here is some of the finished art, sans text. It's going to be a lovely thing and something - at the very end of Katie's 21st anniversary year - I feel just a tiny bit proud of!

Cheer from Cheltenham

2010-12-07T06:01:00.003Z

A few weeks back a bout of Tonsillitis prevented me from appearing at the Cheltenham Literary Festival. Obviously I was disappointed, and so, it seems were the children of one particular school, Charlton Kings Junior. The children in class 3M have sent Get Well Soon cards, and they are delightful. I was so touched by both the pictures and the kind messages. I wonder if I will ever be able to go to Cheltenham and meet them? Life is full of unexpected introductions like this... that sometimes never come full circle. But who knows? Anyway, I have sent the class teacher Helen Morrison, a signed book and just in case they read this blog: Thank you all sincerely. It was a lovely gesture and I will treasure all the cards! (and I am fully recovered by the way!).

A Second Katie Trail

2010-11-26T13:35:00.001Z

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to create a bespoke trail for the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, which seems to have gone down well. The National Gallery in London were suitably impressed and so I am now creating a "Katie" trail for the Trafalgar Square gallery. This time I have a co-author, the brilliant Caroline Marcus, who I met during the Take One Picture project at a school in Hitchin. She is a mine of fascinating information and an ideal colleague.

The trail will be launched during the February half term at the National Gallery. Here are some preliminary sketches for it - I'm excited, and I think it's going to be a lovely thing for children to explore the gallery with.

SPLAT! A secret revealed...

2010-11-12T17:49:00.002Z

Over the past few months I have hinted at a TOP SECRET PROJECT and now I am able to reveal what it is. After a few weeks of meeting and discussions I have agreed to licence the theatrical rights in Katie to SPLATS ENTERTAINMENT.
This is a theatre, circus and education company who specialise in small or midscale productions of classic stories, and accompany these with “make a play days” in schools, involving children in all parts of the process.
Mike Redwood, theatre director, wanted to work with a living author rather than a dead one, and as his children loved the Katie books, he approached me and here we are, with a contract in place and lots of ideas and plans for Katie’s theatrical debut.
Work begins early next year with some school workshops. From there Mike and his team will develop a play that will eventually become a professional production with a team of actors and will use puppetry and special effects. As Mike himself said : “I want this to be really magical!”
I will of course be posting regularly about progress. We hope the play will be ready for it to be presented in a London theatre by Christmas 2011, although that remains fluid. The exciting thing is that I will be involved with how it develops and – excitingly – how it looks. With my longstanding interest in theatrical set design, I just can’t wait! Hurrah!
What a wonderful piece of news to conclude a year of 21st Anniversary celebrations for Katie!

Children's Classical Concert - news and reviews

2010-11-10T08:49:00.005Z

While Katie has been basking in the the glory of her 21st anniversary celebrations in Paris and at the National Galleries this year, her little friend Ella Bella has been having her own fun. On Sunday 7th November, two performances of "Stories from the Ballet" took place in Hatfield, both really well attended, and you can read a lovely review on a Cambridge Art School student blog. Just click in the words below:

KIDSBOOKSMA

And I've posted about it myself on Ella's own blog. Again, click below to link:

James Mayhew presents Ella Bella Ballerina

But today it's back to Katie as I am going to London to meet two people at the National Gallery. One is Caroline Marcus who is co-authoring a new "Katie Trail" with me, using Katie and five pictures from the National Gallery, due to be available in February.

The other person is... a TOP SECRET for now but is going to lead to something incredibly exciting. Watch this space!!!

Gifts from the Gallery...

2010-10-30T16:18:00.007+01:00

Jackie Morris asked me yesterday what was the best thing about my week-in-residence at the National Gallery in London. The answer was easy. Despite the fantastic colleagues, the glorious surroundings and the world-famous art, it was the children who made every day so memorable. There were so many lovely little characters, and as always, it was a joy to see even the shyest child create something satisfying.

A few children gave me their pictures as gifts; and a few "preliminary sketches" were left behind too, so I am posting some pictures here, along with some biro drawings of me and Katie (with Madame Moitssier - apologies to Ingres) by Amelia.

Even at the final workshop - which was for adults - there were children squeezing into the (jam-packed) room. It was a real delight to learn that a family from the British School in Paris was amongst them. And all grown-up, a girl from Tacolneston school who I worked with when she was just a tiny little child also came. I also met a charming young student of Journalism, with a particular interest in the Arts, called Steve Peiris.

Other days brought other surprises: the second prize winner of the Nessie competition, Gareth, came along on the Thursday and joined in the fun. And Kathryn, who I went to school with and who I haven't seen for 30 years turned up one day...(I forget which - it's all a blur!).

Of course the object of the excercise has been to excite young minds about art, and my sincere hope is these children will always look upon those paintings in the National Gallery as their paintings. Everytime they see a postcard or a reproduction in a book, they will remember the day they created "Storms Seas and Sunsets", like Mr. Turner!

It's been an extraordinary week, only made possible by the hard work of all the people behind the scenes at Orchard Books (Fritha, Sarah, Emma, Liz) and the National Gallery (Miranda, Katy, Emma and Hannah). Thanks a million!

When I was "Surprised" at the gallery!

2010-10-28T20:22:00.004+01:00

Today was the last children's workshop at the National Gallery, and it rushed by so quickly. I still have the adult workshop tomorrow, but I'm going to be sad when this week is over. I've met some wonderful people, revived old friendships, and seen the glow of inspiration in the happy faces of, literally, hundreds of children.

Alongside my events, the gallery have hosted workshops by an organisation called Artburst, who mix up art, stories and drama, to create wonderful workshops for children. To tie in with the week, they have used Katie's Picture Show, in particular the Rousseau painting "A Tropical Storm with a Tiger" (or, "Surprised!").

The children created scenery and acted out a mini version of the book. It was rather stange and wonderful - and, appropriately, surprising - to be able see the performances, and indeed to eavesdrop on the reading of my book in the gallery. It feels like all this is happening to someone else, not me. I am very grateful to everyone who has worked with and around me, preparing the week and supporting Katie. It's been an unforgettable experience...

The next generation: Children's art from the National Gallery

2010-10-28T05:58:00.009+01:00

I love the way children draw and paint but even taking that into account I've been blown away by the extraordinary work children have been creating this half term at the National Gallery. Definitely a great new generation of artists coming our way, and what lucky children to take part in these free workshops at the National Gallery in London!

The younger children began by looking at the paintings of Turner and, after making some sketches actually in the gallery, they went to the education department for a chance to do something more painterly (and messy!). They've all thrown themselves into it with absolute abandonment, creating gorgeous and unexpected twists on the idea of "painting weather". Some few pictures are posted here - the days have been so busy, there's been barely time to pause and grab a camera. But what great days they have been - filled with stories and fun and art. Their pictures were created with emulsion paint - ideal for Turner with the subtle and muted colours.

The older children (12-17) also started with Turner, and took up the idea of bringing things into more focus; imagining they could climb inside. With the story of Ulysses and the Cyclops (inspired by Turner's painting of Ulysses deriding Polyphemus), they took their Turneresque sketches and expanded them ("drawing out the elements" as the workshop was called; a reference also to the weather in the pictures). In this instance, the children used more illustrative materials: pens and watercolours, preceeded by pencil sketches in the gallery. It was interesting to note how much more self-conscious teenagers are and how soon a child loses that ability to be reckless and experimental. But I think they had fun too (even if it was uncool to admit it!). Last workshop for children today, then an event on friday for adults. A busy busy week, but what an honour to be working in such a magnificent building!

A week at the National Gallery!

2010-10-24T12:57:00.002+01:00

Tomorrow I go to the National Gallery in London to set up everything ready for four days of workshops there during this half term. I am so excited!

A couple of weeks ago, outside the gallery on the "fourth plinth", was a beautiful ship in a bottle. As the theme of the workshops is the paintings of Turner, this struck me as a good omen...

These workshops are all FREE so come along if you have bored children this half term. I promise we are going to have lots of fun with messy paint!

Full details cane be found on the National Gallery website, by clicking HERE and following the Holiday Activities links.

Hope to see you there!

Parisian Pictures

2010-10-22T15:21:00.002+01:00

After a week or so with Tonsillitis, I am at last getting around to posting more about the Katie celebrations in Paris. The area of the Seine was popular with many impressionist paintings and it was lovely that the local authories had had the sense to put reproductions of relevent pictures at the correct spots along the river bank.

Obviously with this sort of heritage it was appropriate for the children and I to work on something impressionistic. You can see some pictures here which will give you some idea of what went on. The year 3 children worked on a vast (and I do mean VAST) picture inspired by Van Gogh, which was around 9 metres long (in just two hours!). We combined the Starry Night with sunflowes and a cornfield painting, and the children did a fabulous job. After lunch the year 6 children combined two Monet paintings of the Grenouillere (see previous posting below).This was slightly smaller but still spectacular. The effects of the water are particularly pleasing. I had such a busy but exciting and satisfying couple of days, and it's a real thrill to think that a something has remained behind there!

Meanwhile I have also been busy with Ella Bella events. You can read about those HERE.

Happy Birthday Katie... in Paris!

2010-10-07T06:07:00.007+01:00

Yesterday I returned from an exhilarating trip to Paris, where I had been invited to speak at The British School of Paris. The trip was so easy and enjoyable I'm rather embarrassed to admit that I have never been to Paris before. What a city!

The simply wonderful librarian Janee, and her generous and warm family, scooped me up from the station and immediately whisked me down the Seine on a boat cruise to see the sights, of which, of course, there are rather a lot! With my head reeling with landmarks...Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, Opera Garnier (Oh how I wanted to go inside!), Musee d'Orsay etc, etc... they then took me to the most wonderful restaurant. But that needs a post to itself (which will follow!).

The purpose of the trip was really to work. And so on October 4th, their dynamic young head, Jamie Hornshaw, showed me the spectacular new junior school, opened just a few weeks ago by the Duchess of Gloucester. It is built to the West of Paris along the banks of the Seine, at the very region where Monet painted La Grenouillere and other scenes, along with his Impressionist colleagues. I felt very honoured to be the first artist to visit the new school and to work with the children. And it all seemed extraordinarily appropriate.

It was also the perfect spot to celebrate the publication of Katie and Waterlily Pond (which features that painting), and I am overwhelmed by the welcome I received at the school. Truly an unforgettable few days.

The school arranged sessions with all 400 plus children... so it was a busy couple of days. But perhaps the most exciting moment was when a large anniversary cake was revealed, with Katie painted on the icing, with the words "Happy 21st Anniversary". Most extraordinary of all was that, by pure chance, this was October 4th, my sister's birthday. And as anyone interested in Katie surely knows, my sister Kate is the original. She was at home nursing a cold, so was greatly cheered by the news that the entire Junior department of the British School of Paris were saluting her by singing Happy Birthday to You, twice. Once in English; once in French.

I felt extremely honoured to be there and I am so grateful to everyone for an unforgettable few days. More will follow!

Katie at the National Gallery in London!

2010-09-11T06:53:00.005+01:00

Summer is over, and a busy and exciting autumn lies ahead, with festivals, concerts and signings. The biggest series of planned events will be a spectacular celebration of Katie's 21st anniversary at the very place where her story begins: The National Gallery in London. I will be there for four days in half term leading a wonderfully wide range of workshops for both children and adults, which will be supported by a host of other activities at the gallery.

The fun begins on Tuesday October 26th, with a workshop for 5-11 year olds called "Seas, Sunsets and Storms", inspired by the paintings of J.M.W. Turner. The workshop will be repeated on Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th.

For 12-17 year olds there will be an art workshop in the afternoon of Wednesday 27th called "Drawing Out The Elements", which will also investigate Turner's paintings, but within a broader context.

I must emphasise that these are all FREE and will be loads of fun!

Finally, on Friday October 29th, I will lead a free workshop for adults in drawing for illustrative purposes, which is also a competition for budding illustrators.

The gallery will also be hosting art and drama based on Katie's adventures; and I will be signing books before and after sessions. It's going to be a busy week!

I am so excited to have this incredible opportunity to work with everyone at the National Gallery; a great honour and a wonderful experience.

You can find full details on the National Gallery website BY CLICKING HERE.

Book early - hope to see you there!

And the winner is.... PIPER!!!!!

2010-08-13T11:55:00.005+01:00

My warmest congratulations to Piper from Scotland! YOU HAVE WON THE KATIE LOCH NESS MONSTER COMPETITION out of over 300 entries!!!

This is exactly the sort of Nessie I think Katie would have painted. I love the bold shape, the cheery flippers and the fin at the end of her tail.

This will be featured in the new Katie book which I finished yesterday: Katie in Scotland! I went to Orchard's offices to sign hundreds of books being given away as prizes, and letters to the schools and children who entered.

Abundant cake was on offer (thank you Emma at Orchard!) to keep me going, and also to help remind me that it's Katie's 21st birthday this year and I should celebrate at every possible opportunity.

I can't think of anything more celebratory than announcing the winner of the competition! THANKS TO ALL OF YOU who took the time to enter, I'm really honestly so grateful. It was truly wonderful to see the work of so many fantastic artists and so many different and imaginative Nessies. I think you are ALL BRILLIANT.

Some work in progress for my book is posted here along with the second prize entry which is by Gareth, who wins a complete set of books.

Both Piper and Gareth will join 8 other runners up in a special exhibition at the National Gallery in Edinburgh next autumn.

Well done all of you, and especially Piper!

Katie and the Waterlily pond - PUBLISHED TODAY!

2010-08-05T07:21:00.002+01:00

Hurrah! It's publication day for Katie and the Waterlily Pond. This is the tenth book in the Katie series and publication coincides neatly with the 21st anniversary of the very first book (Katie's Picture Show).

Some parts of the book were a real challange. The one I particularly remember is the scene in the Giverny garden, with the Japanese bridge. It was so hard to "extend" the scene to the left. I looked at other paintings by Monet, as well as the modern garden layout, but it was hard to know what had changed. The bridge now has an elaborate pergola over it (this can been seen in some later paintings by Monet) which changes the view, for example. The path to the left is still there, so I included that. But the trees! I had to leave space for text! Well, the end result is inside the book - take a look in a bookshop and see what you think!

There is no grand launch or ceremony. I'm frantically busy trying to complete Katie in Scotland anyway. But later in the Autumn I am going to the Cheltenham Festival, to the British School in Paris and giving a string of workshops at the National Gallery (details will appear on this Katie site as and when...), so Katie isn't going to be neglected!

Margaret's Carousel article

2010-07-31T17:53:00.003+01:00

I recently posted a piece about my dear friend Margaret Hickman-Smith, CLICK HERE to read "Riding a Carousel with Margaret", who wrote about me for Carousel magazine. This is now online and if you want to read it CLICK HERE. She's an amazing woman and I am eternally grateful to her for all she has done for me over many years of friendship, and now for her kind words here.

Here's a picture taken many years ago at her school in Tacolneston, Norfolk: a parade of children appearing as characters from famous paintings!

Judging Nessies!

2010-07-22T19:58:00.002+01:00

What an afternoon! I confess we didn't count the entries - there were just too many! But we think there must have been OVER 300!!!

After laying them out on tables - we had to do that in three waves of pictures as even the biggest conference room was swamped - my editor Liz, and Victoria and Emma from the marketing department helped me whittle them down to fifty or so. Then I had to find the ten that will be featured in a special exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Edinburgh, and a winning entry - which will be published in "Katie in Scotland".

For this there were particular needs. The picture needed to be clear and easy to see when reduced in size, so not too highly detailed, as this wouldn't work well in the book. It was so SO SO hard!!! The hardest two hours of my life - EVER! But we finally settled on a winner, and I think it's a peach of a picture, as the whole body of Nessie makes a lovely graphic shape.

So who was the winner?

Ah! I can't say yet. All the winners will be notified by post at the end of August. So you will have to be patient a bit longer. Meanwhile, look at these photos and see if you can spot your picture.

I would just like to say that the standard was astonishingly high, and there really wasn't a single picture that didn't deserve a fabulous prize so WELL DONE to EVERYONE who entered, you should be incredibly proud of yourselves!!!

It's clear that there are lots of budding artists amongst you, and some wonderful drawings didn't win because although they were absolutely superb, they were just too scary or monstrous!

As soon as I'm allowed I will post more about the winners. For now, THANK YOU to everyone who entered, it's been an incredible experience!

Nessie competition judging day!

2010-07-22T07:19:00.002+01:00

Today's the day - this afternoon I will go to London to choose the winning entries in the Loch Ness Monster art competition. I can't wait, as I haven't seen any of them yet. Of course I always find this sort of thing difficult - I love children's drawings and I expect I'll want them ALL to win!

Meanwhile Orchard Books have requested a piece of finished art from "Katie in Scotland" for their Frankfurt Book Fair catalogue, so I'm going to pass on this piece, which is NEARLY finished. I'll whip it into shape this morning before hopping on my train to London!

And as soon as I can I'll post some info about the winners of the competition. It may be that Orchard will wish to notify people by post first, in which case I'll have to be patient. But watch this space!

THE KATIE "NESSIE" ART COMPETION IS NOW CLOSED

2010-07-12T17:20:00.005+01:00

With in excess of 200 entries, the task to find a winner will be difficult to say the least. But next week I will go to London to help Orchard Books sift through the entries and find the ten pictures that will be exhibited at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, and the one single picture - the WINNER - which will be published in "Katie in Scotland", appearing as "Katie's" picture of Nessie!!!

I'm incredibly excited and as soon as I have some news I will post it here.

My thanks in advance to EVERYONE who entered. Orchard Books have told me the standard is exceptionally high, so there are obviously lots of talented children out there - hurrah!

Meanwhile, Katie in Scotland is well underway, racing towards the delivery date, August 12th. My table is already a terrible mess... oh dear!

New Look Nessie

2010-07-04T10:52:00.002+01:00

After looking through the rough sketches my publisher, Orchard Books, were concerned that Nessie was not entirely consistant throughout. They also wanted her to look a little more rounded and appealing. So I have revised her a little, as you can see in these sketches. She's much more of a character now...

BY THE WAY, an important message to all children: there is still JUST time to enter Katie's fantastic Nessie Art Competition. Closing date in July 10th, details are listed above. Over 200 entries have already been received - but the more the merrier, so why not give it a try and see if you can become a published illustrator?

Katie's Prehistory!

2010-07-02T06:24:00.013+01:00

I recently posted a piece on my OTHER blog (JAMES MAYHEW) about a piece of art being auctioned tonight to raise funds for Lister Hopsital in Stevenage (TAKE A LOOK BY CLICKING HERE IF YOU WANT TO BID!). And I was reminded that the book it came from had a complicated history. Katie and the Dinosaurs was the second Katie title, and in those days I had no idea that there would be whole art series. Rather, I imagined Katie would skip from museum to museum: Science; Geology; Anthropology... all awaited her inquisitive eye. But things went in another direction of course!

Katie and the Dinosaurs began as a story in which the Natural History Museum reveals a terrible secret: that it has a forbidden door to the past. And having passed through Katie had a dangerous and exciting adventure. Here are the rough skertches from the original dummy book, created a full twenty years ago.

Unfortunately the story was TOO adventuresome for my publisher, Orchard books. And big changes followed.

In the original, Katie is left alone as Grandma snoozes. She then steps through a door clearly labelled "No admittance Whatsoever" and discovers a prehistoric jungle on the other side. Naturally it is inhabited by (rather benevolant looking) dinosaurs. Katie is scared and climbs a tree to escape them, only to be carried up into the sky by a passing Pteranodon. Such is her squirming, he drops her and she lands on a Brontosaurus (sorry all you paleontologists; I know they never really existed). She slides down his back and tail straight into the clutches of a hungry Tyrannosarus Rex (apologies again; wrong era - Sauropods and Tyrannosaurs never co-existed apparently). And Mr Rex then does something unforgiveably wicked. He EATS KATIE. Yes it's true!!! If you look through the images you will see an image of Katie tumbling into his crimson belly.

I was thinking Jonah... Pinocchio...

For Katie escapes; she has with her a "trannie" (or a CD player), and plays rock music at such a volume as to cause a bit of prehistoric indigestion. Tyrannosaurus loses his (thankfully unchewed) lunch and regurgitates Katie intact. She teaches T Rex to dance and the other dinosaurs gather and begin to tap their feet to the beat. None of them have heard any music before and they all have an irresistable urge to dance.

Katie foolishly runs off - with the CD player - and is chased. She assumes she will be, once again, eaten, but they only want her music.

So the story ended with Katie giving her CD player to the dinosaurs to keep, so they can enjoy a bop whenever the mood grabs them. Katie then returned to the museum and Grandma (who may well have had something to say about the missing CD player!)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, when I visit schools, children much prefer this to the published book, which is an entirely different story. I can understand Orchard's reasoning that this original is too scary for the very young. In the finished book Katie isn't eaten and in fact meet a baby herbivore Hadrosaurus who accompanies her. A T. Rex does appear, but is rather easily pacified with Katie's packed lunch.

I wonder what the fate of the book would have been if the original had gone ahead. More than once critics reviewing books of mine have said the stories are a bit ordinary and lacking in real excitement. If only they knew! Meanwhile I have happily returned to prehistoric beasts for Katie In Scotland; the finished art is underway and I'll be posting stuff regularly so you can see how I'm getting along...

Riding a Carousel with Margaret

2010-06-24T09:04:00.014+01:00

Yesterday I received, from the Federation of Children’s Book groups, a copy of their magazine “Carousel”. For inside, I am interviewed by retired head teacher Margaret Hickman-Smith. She has written a lovely piece about me. Now it is time to return the favour, for our meeting a few months back reminded me of the absolute pinnacle of school visits, which was at her tiny little village school in the middle of the Norfolk Countryside.

I’ve been visiting schools for over twenty years. But my experiences at Margaret’s school were truly out of the ordinary.
Like something out of Anne of Green Gables, the school had just two teachers and around 40 children when I first visited over 15 years ago. Margaret and I quickly saw in each other a kindred spirit and our friendship was sealed when I took a hosepipe and drenched her in the playground. This isn’t how I normally treat head teachers of brief acquaintance. But Margaret was different.
She was a brilliant educator; imaginative, loving, strict, funny, talented, resourceful, visionary, inspiring, loyal and passionate. My wife and I came very close to moving there just to educate our son at her school; family commitments kept us in Hertfordshire, alas. But the influence of the school still reached us here, and I fought to introduce many of her innovations at my son’s school (not always taken up sadly). And every year Margaret invited me back to ever more spectacular and touching celebrations.
Like the time when the children showered my wife and I in confetti before our wedding; and when they all worked on creating a huge Cloth of Dreams (after one of my books “The Boy and the Cloth of Dreams") to welcome our newborn son in 1999.

As the school grew in size (which was necessary to survive) and new staff came, they all fell into place under Margaret’s impressive leadership. And they all contributed elaborate dishes to the banquets laid on in my honour. And there was always plenty of cake - can you spot one with Katie iced onto it for a book launch?

Of course such royal treatment is lovely for a visiting author (and all their visitors, from Anthony Browne to Kevin Crossley-Holland were treated just a well), but it also taught the children lessons: to celebrate literature, to enjoy guests, to make an effort to make them welcome.

There would always be a surprise for me at the school. One year the children all dressed as characters from my own books: In these old photos of children (now grown up!) you will see a Firebird, and Princess of Inexhaustible Loveliness (from my book of Russian tales). Others were dressed as characters from famous paintings, inspired by Katie…Degas dancers, a boy dressed as Constable’s Haywain (!), Renoir’s girl with a hoop, Manet’s piper and many others...

You may even see Margaret herself as Katie, discussing something with a dinosaur. Such was Margaret’s ability to inspire enthusiasm, the children and their parents were quite happy to create breathtaking costumes, to spend time and energy helping each and every child create their own “Katie” book, and to find money to buy books – and to cherish them. At Margaret’s school reading schemes were a minor supplement to education. Children learned to read with “real” books.

Projects at the school before and after an author visit were in depth and thorough making sure the children got every shred of worth out of a visit. Books were always brought in for selling and signing. My art projects included toy theatres from shoe boxes, murals, costume designs for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and of course a great deal of investigating into art.
I dedicated “Katie and the Sunflowers” to Margaret and the school, such was (and is) my admiration for this great lady. Even this gesture was reflected back with characteristic generosity: when the school expanded, I was invited to open the “new” school buildings and I was immortalized in a special plaque, based on a sunflower motif. I then decorated the new library (yes, this tiny school had a magnificent library) with sunflower murals.

In every department, in every way, Margaret gave her children a wonderful experience by really using her visitors and building on their work. Imaginative project work, imaginative support for the guest, imaginative choice of visitors.

Therefore, this post is to celebrate a wonderful friend - Margaret - who even in retirement has kindly supported me with the lovely article in Carousel magazine. But without her vision and encouragement none of the things described would have happened. So any teachers reading this – next time you plan a book week, pull out all the stops and see how special you can make it. It’s really up to you!

Bid for Katie!

2010-06-17T09:52:00.001+01:00

Would you like to own an original illustration from "KATIE & THE DINOSAURS" ??? This is your chance - CLICK HERE for details of an exciting art auction in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

Hot off the press

2010-06-11T18:10:00.002+01:00

The very first copy of the new KATIE book, Katie and the Waterlily Pond arrived yesterday, and as always there was a moment of trepidation as I looked through it. Would I be pleased with the printing? Would I spot some horrible typographical error? But it's all fine: The tenth Katie book, in all it's splendour. It will be published in August.

Take One Picture 2010

2010-05-28T13:24:00.003+01:00

The Take One Picture exhibition has now opened at the National Gallery in London. There's some great work there, all based on Renoir's The Umbrellas. I was surprised to see that Stalham Primary School in Norfolk were amongst the schools featured - that was my first school (for one term only)! I ran away on the first day! Things improved after that. I had a lovely teacher called Miss Darling who married a Mr. Love (true story).

Anyway, the most exciting thing of all is to see Samuel Lucas School there too, who I worked with on their project.

Click HERE to visit the National Gallery website where you can see Samuel Lucas School and Le Theatre de Renoir in performance!

Picture progress

2010-05-19T14:10:00.003+01:00

I am very often asked whether the story or the pictures comes first with a book. Obviously the Katie books are a bit different, because I have to choose THE PICTURES before I can write any story, or do my own illustrations based on them.

With Katie in Scotland, I expected the process to be more traditional - story then pictures. But I struggled. I could not develop a story that I felt worked, nor include enough about Scotland to please my publisher. It seemed I was failing from all points of view.

But the recent trip to the Highlands changed everything, and I came back with a much better - indeed passionate - understanding of what would work and what would not. And so I have worked a little differently. Rather than trying to perfect a text and then add images I have worked on both at the same time, developing a narrative around the key images I HAD to include and including the unmissable iconic things about Scotland that struck a chord with me. The process took a little longer and the text will still need editing, but it was a very satisfying process.

I began with thumbnails, planning the whole book as a sort of visual strip-cartoon. and I suppose I did slightly help having several unseccessful drafts of text in my mind, as some sections were kept.

The sketches were pretty skimpy - I didn't want to invest hours in them in case my publisher doesn't like the concept. Once the structure is approved I can put elaborate on these early doodlings and produce more carefully considered roughs, where necessary. I think this is an apporoach I'll try more often and it has resulted in a match between words and image at a slightly earlier stage of things. I must also remond myself of the importance of being there and seeing things. I couldn't have got this far without visiting the real (and wonderful) Loch Ness!

In search of Nessie....and Edinburgh Rock

2010-04-30T16:57:00.011+01:00

I feel as though I have travelled from late Winter through to early Summer on my journey from Loch Ness to Letchworth. Leaves and petals seemed to unfurl before my eyes, and as I look at the abundant foliage here I am thinking of the plentiful snow still clinging to Ben Nevis. So, after a week in Scotland I feel disorientated but happy to be home.

My head is spinning with pictures and ideas, memories of warm hospitality, long distances travelled, and the magnificent contrast between nature and civilisation.

Whenever I travel I think long and hard about what I should take with me to sketch. I remember many disasterous trips when my tools seemed ill suited to the occasion. I suppose a bad craftsman blames his tools, but from struggling with fountain pens designed for waterproof ink (they never work) at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, or regretting the embarrasingly large sketchbooks I took to New York (talk about drawing attention to oneself), I have made every mistake imaginable.

This time my main challange was time. The weekend was busy with a workshop for adults, two storytelling sessions at the National Gallery of Scotland, all superbly orchestrated by Linda McClelland at the gallery. It was exciting and a bit overwhelming to see the exhibition at last, perfectly realised. And to see families enjoying the "Katie trail". As always, Linda was kindness itself and it is only because of her vision and enthusiasm that it all came to fruition. This was followed the next day by a whistlestop tour of the city of Edinburgh. My stalwart editor discreetly left me to sketch the courtyard inside Edinburgh Castle, only to later spot me being approached by an Australian couple, who delightedly told me of how they had counted the bricks in an engraving of some historiocal building in Britain, which they then checked against the real thing. Suddenly my weedy sketch of the castle looked even more disappointing. But I rallied when I reminded myself that this was a study for an illustration not an architecturally accurate record!

Early next morning, I managed two studies of the exterior castle, one with a fibre-tipped pen, one with pencil. Otherwise I used brushes with ink or paint (in fact brush pens, great for speed).

Later on, as I took the spectacular rail journey (I can't call it a trip; it's too fabulous) to Fort William, I tried sketching vertiginous mountains from a rattly old train. Sometimes the train was slow (I don't normally rejoice at such a circumstance, but this time I did), and I also filled in some detail from memory (or from other mountains). They are "impressions". I used the brush pens again and also some white oil pastel for resist and some lightening.

If anything, the bus journey from Fort William to Loch Ness is even more impressive. At Loch Ness I had time but less inclination to sketch, as I wanted to walk and explore. What a fabulously dark and moody place the Loch is, and I was very pleased that the ruins of Urquhart castle had not been "recreated", but left largely to the imagination.

I promised I would post any half-decent sketches. Not sure which half of them is any good, but they are incredibly valuable to me, both as reference and as a reminder of a really exciting expedition. I have wanted to visit Loch Ness since I was about 5 years old. It took over 40 years, but a little dream has come true. And Nessie? No, she didn't turn up for me. But I will say how the water of the Loch - which is miles long of course and exceptionally deep - was full of strange currents and surface pattens, dark shadows and ripples. A little imagination could have created a monster out of any of them.

So... onwards with Katie in Scotland. I have now largely rewritten the story and begun storyboarding the plan and the whole experience has filled me with enthusiasm and wide-eyed wonder for Nessie, Edinburgh, Scotland and how they will all appear in the book...

SCOTLAND THE BRAVE...

2010-04-21T17:14:00.003+01:00

I'm off Scotland to give storytellings and run a workshop at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh , and to research Katie In Scotland with a further trip to the Highlands. I am wondering what to take. Sketching is always a trial, frankly. I love to do it but I'm always disappointed with the results; none of the tools ever seem to suit the moment. So I'm taking all sorts of stuff and a variety of sketch pads... If I produce anything half decent I'll post it here, in just over a week. Meanwhile, should you miss me (!) you can always look at stuff on my other blogs:
James Mayhew; Ella Bella Ballerina and Dusty Old Books.

Cheerio!

A clutch of Nessies

2010-03-30T10:47:00.004+01:00

While I struggle a little with a story for Katie in Scotland, I thought I'd post an assortment of sketches for Nessie. These were doodled in advance of the book to promote the BIG NESSIE COMPETITION which will be launched this Easter at the National Galleries of Scotland and online at Orchard Books' website. DETAILS TO FOLLOW!

Different people see Nessie in different ways. But Orchard and I eventually decided that Nessie is:

a) Female
b) Be-flippered, not legged and
c) Greenish for camouflage

In other words, pretty close the the Plesiosaurus that most sightings have compared jher with. Lot's of pictures and toys make her more worm/eel-like, without legs or flippers. Sometimes she has horns. Ah well... on my trip to Loch Ness later this month, I'll be able to sketch the real thing from life!

Katie in Cottenham

2010-03-23T16:45:00.003Z

Today I had a rare and wonderful experience at a primary school, in Cottenham, Cambridgeshire. They decided to adapt Katie and the British Artists for their school play. They changed Katie to "Josie" and adjusted some of the paintings (including a Lowry instead of a Turner), but the imagination and hard work created something very special, an enchanting memory for all the children - and me!

Children from years 3 & 4 took part (it's a large school so this provided around 200 children), and they represented the paintings in dance and costume. I don't have any photographs, alas (child protection and all that), so you'll have to take my word for it: it was fabulous. My heartfelt thanks to the staff, parents and children for such an honour. I can't think of a better way to bring art alive for children.

Pictures from an exhibition

2010-03-09T07:07:00.004Z

Nothing to do with Mussorgsky for once. These are pictures Linda McClelland, the education manager at the National Gallery of Scotland, took of the Katie's Picture Show exhibition just before it opened...

I can't wait to get to Scotland for the events and my research trip. It's going to be quite an adventure... the trains to Fort William are a little hit-and-miss, although I am told that this is one of the Great Railway Journeys of the World. I hope it's a slow old bus of a train to give me a chance to sketch. I'm staying in Fort William two nights so I get enough time to enjoy Ben Nevis (to climb or not to climb. That is the question)AND get to Loch Ness. My poor little head will be spinning with it all!

I must thank my publisher Orchard for all their support on the trail and events and arrangements. A great celebration for Katie's 21st anniversary!

Making an exhibition of herself!

2010-03-08T16:50:00.004Z

Today the exhibition opens at the National Gallery of Scotland (rather appropriately as yesterday was my birthday) and the "Katie trail" is now available to the public. Here are a few pictures of the trail... it's free and so if you have plans to go to Edinburgh, make sure they include a visit to the National Gallery. Linda McClelland has worked tirelessly to pull all the necessary strands together and in an incredibly short space of time. But it's all worked out and I'm thrilled. Later on, next month, I'll visit Edinburgh for a few days to run a workshop for adults and some storytelling sessions for children. While I'm "North of the border" I'm hoping to get to Fort William and maybe (just maybe) Loch Ness. My reason? well Katie is due to meet a certain inhabitant of the Loch in her next book. More about that soon!

Monet Monet Monet

2010-03-06T18:05:00.002Z

Recently I accompanied a year 3 class, from St Thomas More School in Letchworth Garden City, to the National Gallery. This has become an annual event and each visit is followed up with recreating a painting from the collection of the gallery. It's always such fun to see the awe-struck children in the gallery and then compare that with the wild abandon of working with them on a vast scale and with unfamilar paints. Here we've used emulsion paint which is a bit more subtle than acrylic and dries matte of course, which I rather like. It's also very inexpensive (especially as most of the paint was donated by parents with near-to-empty tins to dispose of). The children worked in small groups of around 6 for 20 minutes or so, each new group adding layers and details.

The painting chosen this year was, of course The Waterlily Pond by Monet. And it coincided perfectly with the next Katie book, which is Katie and the Waterlily Pond, due out in August. I read a set of proofs to some of the children - a sort of sneak preview - on the bus to the gallery, so I was very pleased that this painting was chosen by them.

I think they did incredibly well and the photo doesn't do it justice. The painting positively glows on the wall of the classroom!

Delaroche and Lady Jane Grey

2010-02-25T06:07:00.005Z

This week I was lucky enough to be invited to the private viewing of a new exhibition at the National Gallery. The centrepiece is Delaroche's Lady Jane Grey, and it was surrounded by drawings and other paintings by both Delaroche himself and his contempories.

It proved to be a fascinating evening, discovering forgotten artists like Bonington, who died aged 26. With themes of Tudor tragedies, Cromwellian conspiracies, Catholic heroes (Thomas More) and other Victorian fascinations, these artists, like the Italian bel canto composers, found such material irresistably exotic.

Rather out of favour for a long time it is hoped this exhibition will restore Delaroche's reputation. It was fascinating to see how all these artists had learned from other artists like Velazquez and classical compositional techniques. It was also humbling to think of the time and dedication devoted to vast canvasses. Would artists today be inspired to spend years on a politically motivated scene? On that subject, the grand finale was a Cromwellian epic, recently discovered rolled up in the cellar of an aristocrats castle. It was thrillingly presented in a raw state, with shrapnel damage from the second world war. Which brings me to the dedication and love the National Gallery staff lavish on the paintings and the constant improvements of restoration techniques, right down to finding exactly the right frame for a work. It was a privilaged evening and I felt extremely lucky to be there. It's a good exhibition - go and be astonished at the tiny little preliminary sketches that suddenly jump to life in epic canvasses.

Last minute changes

2010-02-06T08:43:00.007Z

This Katie trail is a funny old thing. It has been surprisingly difficult to make look really fun. Catherine Raynor, who will be making a Sylvia the dragon trail, makes "fun" seem so effortless, whereas my illustrations suddenly seem hopelessly conservative. Anyway, I had a change of heart with the front cover and added a picture frame to make it more colourful and interesting (I hope).

But the inside trail was a real problem. One of the activities involves drawing the answers to clues in little picture frames. I drew them and drew them, and jumped up and down on them (I expect, if you look closely, you'll see the footprints!). But I could not get them right. They looked boring and ugly and graphically the page didn't work at all.

As I sketched them out for the umpteenth time I realised it was the quick drawings I liked. The careful pen-and-ink illustrations were too studied and worried... and dark and rigid. So I got out my son's colouring pencils and: hey presto! a solution.

The artwork arrived safely in Edinburgh so now I must just wait to see how it all comes together...

Tale of a Trail

2010-02-01T14:36:00.010Z

With only a couple of days left to complete the art for the "Katie Trail" for the National Gallery of Scotland, I thought I'd quickly upload images of work in progress... a mixture of sketches and finished pieces. It's almost like a very swiftly-produced mini-book! Katie will find various tasks in the book, introduced by a pair of gallery guards in their fetching tartan trousers. The first task is to complete several paintngs (redrawn by me) which have bits missing. This took the longest, but it's almost ready now.

The front of the guide will feature Katie outside the National Gallery of Scotland with Edinburgh castle in the distance. 3,000 will be printed to start with, and as the gallery is Edinburgh's second-to-top attraction (after the castle), I hope this FREE guide will make a good souvenir for children. Of course you have to go to the gallery to get one...

The museum will provide a pencil case (free hire) for children to use. A very exciting initiative and we all hope it will get more children into the gallery and looking at the fabulous paintings inside!

Take Two hundred and fifty Happy Children

2010-01-29T13:29:00.006Z

I am so thrilled to able to report that Samuel Lucas JMI school in Hitchin today recieved a phone call from the National Gallery. Their Take One Picture work has been formally accepted in the big exhibition that runs from April to September.

The children and staff are all thrilled and are already planning a big whole school day out to bask in their glory and view the show. A film of the performance in "Le Theatre de Renoir" will be shown on a screen and it is possible the theatre will be assembled as an installation. Certainly componants will be exhibited. What a fantastic result and so deserved by a school who embraced the whole idea so completely, with such dedication and hard work. Congratulations to one and all. Do go and visit the exhibition if you can - it promoses to be really special.

Starting the Katie trail

2010-01-18T06:41:00.004Z

With Ella Bella almost completed, I am now turning my thoughts back to Katie. These days it always seems to be one or the other. But this is fun! I am trying to devise a simple but effective art activity fold-out for the National Gallery of Scotland. I have a very short space of time to plan and create this. It has to be finished by early February! The idea is to produce something to make the gallery more fun for children. One slight problem is that several imporatant paintings are going on loan overseas, so I can't produce a simple look-and-search trail. This photograph shows where I'm up to, so there's still a long way to go. But I think it will fold out with some paintings reproduced that have elements missing. Children will be invited to draw the missing things. In the centre there will be a large empty frame for children to "create their own masterpiece". The gallery will "hire" colouring pencils so children can engage in some creativity while looking around for inspiration. And it will be produced on good easy-to-draw-on paper as well... very important!

Fun Facts about Amazing Artists - No. Three

2010-01-15T18:42:00.010Z

Everyone knows that John Constable grew up in Suffolk and that he painted Will Lott's cottage. There can't be many people unaware that the whole Stour valley between South Essex and North Suffolk is called Constable Country, and Dedham Mill and surrounding countryside are visited by millions of tourists every year.

As I began work on Katie and the British Artists I knew I would need to return to a place I'd visited a couple times as a child. I grew up in Suffolk myself, albeit in Blundeston at the farthest boundary from Flatford or Dedham. But it was Constable's example that first set me off across Blundeston marshes with my paints and easel. As my Uncle Richard used to say, "He knew how to make a tree look like a tree". As a teenage artist, I wanted nothing more.

Revisiting Constable Country as an adult was worrying on several counts.

Firstly, I had been warned about crowds so I arrived (with family) very early. But would it be spoiled with cheap tatty tea shops and plastic trinkets?

At it turned out it was unexpectedly beautiful and tranquil, and the tea shops relatively discreet. The view across the river beside the famous cottage is virtually unchanged from when The Hay Wain was painted (in 1821). Only the hay-cart itself was missing. I felt like Katie, as though I had in fact stepped into the painting. It is easy to dismiss The Hay Wain as hackneyed, and Constable as chocolate-boxy. It is true that The Hay Wain features on tea towels and biscuit tins and faux-canvas reproductions; you will see them in every charity shop in England. And yet, standing there on the spot that inspired Constable it seemed to me that there was no other way it could be done. No other way of capturing the still detail of that countryside, with the endless skies and clear light.

But I had already used The Hay Wain anyway, in the very first Katie book, Katie's Picture Show. This time I intended to use The Cornfield as Constable’s sole contribution to my new book. My problem was that this portrait shaped picture (unusual for Constable) had to extend for a double page spread, which meant adding greatly to the composition.

As Constable was so authentic in terms of capturing the countryside I felt I really needed to do my research and be equally well prepared.

In the little tourist centre a map was offered, with a Constable walk. Until recently I would have been promised the very location where the Cornfield was painted also. For many years it was assumed to be Fenbridge Lane in Flatford. But now the location had become more controversial for just past the turning for Fenbridge Lane is a private farm. Beyond the gate a dead tree. And in wet winters, near the tree a spring is sometimes found to reappear. Could this be where he took inspiration for the dead tree in his painting? Was it possible the same tree still stood 170 years after Constable painted it? Was this the spring the shepherd boy drank from?

In Sherlock Holmes mode (Miss Marple – my wife Mari – at my side) we explored both, and Gabriel provided his interpretation of the Shepherd boy in the original painting (and got stung by nettles in the process).

With either location, extending the painting sideways was a problem . It just didn’t seem to work. Until I realized the Constable had actually made it all up. All the components in that painting were from different view points. The church wasn’t visable from either the Fenbridge lane or the farm-with-a-dead tree. The lay of the land didn’t match. The arrangement of trees did not match. This was very much a composition. And so mine would be too; and it is.

It was nevertheless invaluable to be there and sketch and soak up the atmosphere. It all seeps out into the work.

I came away, more importantly , with renewed respect for Constable and his ability to move a landscape around to create the composition he wanted. Some he found ready made in nature. But he wasn't a slave to the countryside. Some paintings he assembled himself with such skill and knowledge of the countryside that you simply can’t see the joins.

Katie in China!

2010-01-08T18:07:00.002Z

No, this isn't a new book title (well, maybe one day...who knows?). Last year I was interviewed for a Chinese magazine called "Parenting Science", and in some depth too. Usually authors get asked their favourite colour, name of pet etc. But this was a really interesting interview about how art is misunderstood by many adults who therefore become nervous of taking children to galleries, and suggestions for overcoming their conceerns, amongst other things.

Here's a little extract. Unfortunately it is all in Chinese Mandarin so you can't read my answers! The article followed the Chinese Madarin publication of the whole back-list of Katie art books. I really hope they help the next generation of Chinese children to become confident and happy about looking at pictures.

A new year - a new book!

2010-01-02T12:19:00.001Z

It's always very exciting to start a new book. At the moment I am frantically finishing the latest story about Ella Bella, but already I am thinking of new adventures for Katie. Through my very happy association with the National Gallery of Scotland, Orchard books have concluded that the next book should be: Katie in Scotland. Whether she'll have a tartan of her own, I don't know, but this little book should be the perfect place to begin researching possibilities. One thing is for sure - she'll be meeting a certain inhabitant of Loch Ness. How I will get her, brother Jack and Grandma around the highlands and still find room for Edinburgh in a mere 32 pages I really don't know. Perhaps Nessie will provide the answer. It will be a whirlwind tour I think! One thing IS for sure - it's going to be fun!

Katie Pictures in Edinburgh

2009-12-17T16:11:00.004Z

A perfect way to end the year is to announce that next year, the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh will host a Katie exhibition and a special trail for children, in collaboration with Orchard Books. The exhibition will be shared with illustrator Catherine Rayner, and will feature original illustrations for Katie books along with sketchbooks and preliminary work. It opens on March 8th 2010 and runs until the end of May. I will be in Edinburgh in late April to run a workshop and give storytellings and it will be a huge pleasure to work once again with Linda McClelland at the gallery. It is thanks to her enthusiasm and energy, this exciting opportunity has arisen.

2010 will be Katie's "21st Birthday", and this will be a fantastic way to start celebrating!!!

Bravo Le Theatre de Renoir

2009-11-23T12:57:00.005Z

My congratulations to everyone at Samuel Lucas School in Hitchin. Earlier this year they invited me to be their artist-in-residence for their Take One Picture project. This is the annual National Gallery scheme, where each year a single painting from their collection is chosen. Notes and training days are offered to teachers who wish to participate in the programme, and outstanding projects get exhibited at the National Gallery itself.

This year the painting was The Umbrellas by Renoir, and you can read about the work we produced in an earlier post (Click here). I was so excited to hear that Samuel Lucas School has been short-listed and will be visit by personel from the gallery in December. That means Le Theatre de Renoir has to be rebuilt! And the play rehearsed and put on again. But it will be so great if the work goes to London - the children and staff worked so hard, they deserve to be successful. Time to pull out all the stops... and I'll go along to help if I can. Wish them luck!

Show Time: The Spooky Tunes Concert

2009-11-09T17:08:00.016Z

With the Children's Concert with the de Havilland Philharmonic Orchestra over, I can now begin to relax into my next book, Ella Bella Ballerina and Swan Lake. The intense rehearsals, the nerves, the filthy pit of a studio are all gone. My floors are washed, the CD of music is replaced and it's time to move on. But first I must just linger a little on the memory of yesterday which is something I'll cherish for a very long time. Really it's dream come true and, as the orchestra leader remarked, probably a unique way of introducing children to classical music.

The music, beautifully performed by the orchestra under Robin Browning (a fantastic colleague) was just wonderful. To be up on stage, surrounded by these musicians, to feel the boards shake with their sound, is sometimes almost overwhelming. The Swan of Tuonela by Sibelius was an almost transcendental experience, the icy haunting music perfectly capturing a bleak Nordic landscape. To have the honour of painting along to this music and to retell such wonderful stories as The Swan, and Baba Yaga, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Peer Gynt and Night on a Bare Mountain, was unforgettable.

There are no photographs of the actual concert, but here is a quick snap of a small section of the stage set up for the performance, just before it began. I paint at the easel you can see, which is hard enough but made harder because it is at a particular angle for the camera. This then projects the paintings onto a huge screen behind the orchestra. Below are preliminary pictures for The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Peer Gynt. The first was the hardest; the picture had to change as the music told the story, almost like an animation. But Peer Gynt's Mountain King caused a few problems as well. I had only two minutes or so in which to paint something and in my enthusiasm I sprayed half the orchestra (and their valuable instruments) in emulsion paint! This was during the final rehearsal. I tried to restrain myself during the performance, but Grieg overwhelmed me and it was the audience who got caught out this time!

Now, I may be the one on stage taking a bow and getting bunches of flowers and compliments, but all of this couldn't happen without my colleagues and friends at the theatre who hold it all together. To Natalie, Nadine, James, Lucy, Gabby and co; And Maureen Irving of the St Alban's Children's Book Group, whose vision this was: Thank you one and all... I couldn't have done it without you!. The idea of children going home humming Dukas or Saint-Saens...or dreaming up their own pictures. That's what it's all about. I am proud of what we all achieved together. As the concert was, once again, sold out I am optimistic we'll be doing a new one next year. Now...what shall we perform? Any suggestions?

Spooky Tunes concert sketches!

2009-10-28T16:39:00.004Z

As November 8th draws closer I am shut away frantically trying every bizarre technique imaginable as I try to find the best way to create paintings that illustrate the musical stories in this concert in the shortest possible time. At the moment I am favouring household emulsion paint but I've been trying oil pastels with paint, with scratching and scraping, drawing and splashing... oh everything. I want all the scenes to begin with a black (and blank) canvas, to make the effect suitably spooky. I find painting at an easel very hard though, and some pieces of music only last around three minutes!!! Detail is no good - the cameras can't project anything other than bold high contrast images. Anything subtle doesn't show very well. I also have to narrate the stories before the orchestra play the music (and I begin to paint). Here you can see a version of Night on the Bare Mountain, and an attempt at The Swan of Tuonela. Neither is good enough yet!!! I KNOW I can get them better. Practise...practise...practise.

How it all began - part two

2009-09-29T11:31:00.020+01:00

Although it was glaringly obvious to most people that I was destined to be an illustrator, as a teenager I still imagined I would be a Great Painter, creating magnificent canvasses and starving in a garret. I do still miss those days; I would go off on my bicycle, across Blundeston Marshes, painting in a thoroughly impressionistic manner, but without the sheer genius of the Impressionists, sadly. But I learned a lot about different techniques and to this day the smell of oil paints can still quicken the pulse. I fell in love with nature and the whole idea of capturing the effects of light. Some days I would do five or six paintings. The self-portrait (with hair!)was painted when I was 16. You can see how seriously I took myself by the stern expression.

A few years later, after a very serious illness, my perspective began to change. I still loved the Old Masters, but I could see I wasn't going to be one of them. My Foundation Course at Lowestoft School of Art had been severely interrupted by health matters and at the end of it I was refused a place on a Fine Art degree at Camberwell School of Art, for being too illustrative. That summer I attempted pavement drawings for some consolation (and much needed cash). Together with a friend from my course, I transformed Station Square in Lowestoft (hardly the most promising location) into a regular Art Gallery. Here you can just make out Mona Lisa, and a couple of pictures based on Turner's paintings... and a glimpse of the Hay Wain by Constable. I had such fun copying these famous paintings... and in so doing, a tiny seed of an idea began to grow in my imagination...

Here are the very first sketches for the book that would become Katie's Picture Show. So many people have asked: Where did you get the idea for Katie? Ideas grow from many things. Memories, words, people and experiences. I have shown the books and the pavement drawings that were part of inspiration, and they came together in this dummy book. As a student, at Maidstone college of Art, I was invited, with my colleagues, to enter the Macmillan Children's Book prize, for which students have to submit an idea for an illustrated picture book. This was my intended entry. Unfortunately my tutors hated it so much it was never entered. This was the only project related to children's books on the whole three year course. I was naturally disappointed by their reaction. And this dummy was shoved to the back of a drawer and forgotten...

In 1987 I graduated from Maidstone College of Art with any dream of working as a children's book illustrator firmly crushed. One tutor, Wendy Smith, did suggest (in those last few days) that I might investigate children's books. But it all seemed a bit late. I had a folio full of images for novels by Elizabeth Bowen (The Hotel is shown here) and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Nothing for children. I began the depressing task of contacting publishers and attempting to get work. My first interview - for Pan books - was typical. I was told my work was "too small, too dark and rather suicidal". Which was exactly how I was beginning to feel!

Working my way through an alphabetical list I thought I'd try Faber and Faber, renouned for their stylish covers. But I accidently called Franklin Watts - a children's publisher - and by the time I realised my mistake I was far too embarressed to admit it. And so I went to see them - and took with me my ill-fated Katie's Pictures dummy. Astonishingly, the junior designer I met rather liked it and asked to hang onto it. The company had recently set up a new imprint: Orchard Books, and she thought it might work on their list. I agreed to let her keep it - what did I have to lose? The next day, managing director Judith Elliott called to make an offer!

Here you can see my first typed manuscript (produced on a type-writer!!!) But I wasn't out of the woods yet. First of all, Picasso's Child with a Dove had to go (see picture below). I quickly discovered I could only use out-of-copyright artists (back then it was those artists who have been dead for fifty years).

Then the book had to be taken to the Frankfurt bookfair. And by an astonishing coincedence, Posy Simmons had a new book idea presented at the same fair: Lulu and the Flying Babies, a story about (wait for it) a girl in a gallery. It suddenly looked like this opportunity was slipping away, for how could I, a newcomer, possibly compete with the well-established and brilliant Posy?

Imagine my excitement when the director of Orchard Books, Judith Elliott, returned from the Frankfurt bookfair with good news. It was a yes! they would publish my book and call it Katie's Picture Show! Although the book by Posy Simmonds that had also been shown at Frankfurt was simular, it was evident that Katie would work rather differently by having real paintings reproduced in the story. Indeed it seems this was the first time that a picture book story for children had real paintings incorporated. Of course many other books have adopted this idea since, but I'm rather proud of Katie's pioneering efforts.

And so, while Orchard Books explored permissions and copyrights, I began experimenting with the illustrations. An offer of a contract is one thing, but being able to come up with the goods is quite another. I soon realised that I was woefully ill-equipped by my illustration degree to tackle this book. So I drew and drew and drew. There was no other solution. Slowly the Katie I recognise today began to emerge but it was a torturous process and took many months of experimenting, mostly with line and wash, but on all sorts of papers with a variety of inks and paints.

I had to find an approach that would allow Katie's world to mix with the world in the paintings without jarring too much. I couldn't do anything too quirky or modern as that would just detract from the paintings. I felt the illustrations needed a "classic" quality to them in order for the fantasy to work. Orchard were fantastic, believing in me and standing by me. Never once did they suggest I abandon the project, even though they must have understood how young and inexperienced I was. Their patience gave me confidence.

It was decided that Renoir's Umbrellas (Les Parapluie) would replace the Picasso painting I'd shown in my dummy as that was still in copyright. At the end of the story Katie is absorbed by a piece of modern art. My sketches implied Pollock's style, but he too was in copyright. In the end I chose a piece by Kasimir Malevitch, a Russian avant-garde artist who had been unfortunate enough to die young.

With my paintings chosen, I could now get serious about those pesky illustrations, as well as going through the editing process for the first time with Rosemary Davies, who worked on all the early Katie books.

As I progressed with the illustrations I remember storing the finished pieces under the bed in case of fire or flood. When it was completed I delivered it all by hand (I've never trusted the post, having been a part-time postman myself!).

Finally my first book was approved and sent off to the printers. It was actually real! It was going to happen! I was going to have a book published! Now, where were all those teachers who said I'd never make it?

May 1989. I was living with my parents at the time in a village near Saffron Walden. It was a gloriously sunny morning. A knock at the door - and there was a huge bouquet and a box - containing champagne. A card from Orchard Books read simply: "Congratulations on the publication of Katie's Picture Show".

Of course I'd seen a finished copy beforehand. And these two landmarks in a book's journey - seeing an advance copy and then the day of publication - remain potently thrilling. Here's a letter from dear Judith Elliott (now retired), who had the vision to publish the book and send me on my happy journey into the world of children's books.

The early reviews were not especially kind: "Mayhew's style just about copes with the demands made upon it" said Tony Bradman in The Times. And it didn't exactly fly off the shelves. And yet Katie's Picture Show has remained in print for two decades, thanks to Judith's (and Orchard's) belief in the book.

Over the years the cover has changed with the times, but the insides remain just as they were twenty years ago...

Of course I had no idea that the book would spawn a whole series, and I look back at it now with a mixture of nostaglic indulgence and horror! There are a lot of weak illustrations there; I was only just beginning to find my way. But over the years there have been many kind letters including one from Camp David: Barbara Bush (then the First Lady!) was presented with a copy and was courteous enough to write to me. Usually though the letters and comments are from parents of children begging them to go to a gallery, And this is what the book is all about - celebrating art and artists. I am always so pleased to get these letters and reply to every one of them. I have made some lasting friendships through Katie!

The law of diminishing returns that usually applies to a series has been reversed by Katie. With each new title the series grows in strength and those countries that have not translated her, welcome her into their museum shops in English. She may have begun quietly and uncertainly, but she has grown greatly in confidence (and in sales!) over the years. And the history of art is so full of fascinating and extraordinary paintings, all with stories to tell, that I think the future for Katie is looking good.

Spooky Tunes: A children's classical concert with music, art and stories

2009-09-25T09:24:00.011+01:00

For the last two years I have been lucky enough to present children's concerts with the de Havilland Philharmonic Orchestra in Hatfield. Maureen Irving of the St Albans Children's Book Group was the innovative organiser of this opportunity. She had seen me tell stories and illustrate them, and as many of my tales link to pieces of music, she wanted to find a way of bringing the music into the equation. Of course, 80-piece orchestras are not easy to find. But find one she did. The opening concert featured Peter and the Wolf and the Firebird. For the latter score I wrote a narration that fitted around the music. But what really made the concert a bit different was that I illustrated the stories live on stage while I narrated and the orchestra played. The images were projected in real time upon a huge screen behind the orchestra.

It was a huge gamble, and I was literally terrified. But it worked, and last year we followed it up with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. This was another challenge. I wrote, in verse, an introduction to each of the ten pictures created in music, then recreated them as pictures as the music played. As some of the music was very short, this was tricky (Limoge market had to be painted in 60 seconds!). This year the concert is called "Spooky Tunes" and will feature Danse Macabre, Night on a Bare Mountain, Baba Yaga and The Sorcerer's apprentice, amongst others. As before, the conductor will be Robin Browning, and I'm really excited to be preparing another concert with him. Helping children find a way into classical music is something I'm passionate about. Most concerts try to draw children in with orchestras playing Star Wars or Dr Who themes. That's not my way. I want children to hear the real thing: Saint-Saens, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and co. Now I must go and create narration texts and practise the pictures!!!

Pirates at the National Gallery!

2009-09-21T12:38:00.012+01:00

It's very exciting when various strands come together and story ideas tie up. When I was asked to do a workshop at the National Gallery with Katie and the British Artists as the focus, I tried to think of stories I had that linked to The Fighting Temeraire, stories I could tell from memory. Nothing really worked, so I decided to tell a true story about Pirates and buried treasure. The legend of the Lima treasure on Cocos Island (Believed to be the true inspiration for R.L. Stevenson's Treasure Island) is an extraordinary one, and I have a personal attachment to it as my Grandfather, Henry Leighton, was one of the pioneer treasure hunters in the 1930s who went searching on the island.
Cocos Island is near Galapagos Island, in the Pacific and Henry joined a crew at Lowestoft and sailed all the way in a converted fishing boat called Veracity ("Truth"). He had many adventures but alas found no treasure. Of course his stories were the real treasures to me, something more valuable than any gemstone. He also bequeathed to me a shark's eye, a hard gristly piece from the eye of a shark he caught in the Pacific (he was the galley cook and responsible for feeding the crew). Today the treasure remains undiscovered and the island is now an uninhabited wildlife reserve, and no treasure hunters are allowed upon it. But the big thrill for me was discovering that one of the pirates associated with the treasure, the fabulously named Benito Bonito of the Bloody Sword, was in fact believed to be Captain Bennett Grahame, a veteran of Trafalgar who fought alongside Nelson. That linked beautifully to the National Gallery (which is of course in Trafalgar Square); But there is more. Lord Nelson's ship, HMS Victory, was rescued from attack by none other ship than...The Fighting Temeraire.
It was wonderful to tell this story at the National Gallery yesterday, especially as my Uncle and his daughter and children, all descendants of Henry Leighton, came and heard the story, and indeed saw the shark's eye, which I had brought along as well. In the pictures you can see Henry on Cocos Island, and a practise version of the painting "in the style of Turner" I did for the children, and a picture of the book signing.

Take One Picture - take one school

2009-09-17T07:47:00.011+01:00

Welcome to Le Theatre de Renoir! This wonderful giant puppet theatre was created last week at Samuel Lucas JMI school in Hitchin. Every year, the National Gallery in London choose one painting for schools to reinterpret. The best work will be exhibited at the gallery in a special exhibition called Take One Picture.

This year the painting is Renoir's The Umbrellas, which I used in the very first Katie story, Katie's Picture Show. Samuel Lucas school in Hitchin have decided to take part, and I was lucky enough to be their artist-in-resisdence. Complete with a proscenium arch and scenerey (which they painted themselves) the theatre was created by year 5 and 6 pupils. They also wrote a play, based on the fact that the Umbrellas was partly repainted about five years after if was first started. To involve more children the actors mimed with masks (to look like giant puppets) and narrators sat either side of the stage. The teachers worked really hard rehearsing the children, while the glorious costumes were created in just a few days by a brilliant local artist Trina Bharwaney.

For a whole school project I wanted to create a stained glass window, using transparancy to symbolise rain. I had a few technical problems with paint not sticking to acetate, and in the end used oil pastels. Over 200 children contributed to the drawing. The result was beautiful, allowing glimpses of trees and children playing through the sketchy rainy drawings on the window, which continually change as the sun moves through the day.

Younger children also wrote and illustrated stories and poems, and other artists also came in and created other wonderful works of art: sculptures and gigantic quilts amongst them.

To achieve all this in just five days was incredibly hard work, but also great fun. It was lovely for me to spend a bit longer in a school and really get to know the children and the staff. Samuel Lucas is a rare school, with vision, imagination and lovely people. Everyone made me feel incredibly welcome and all the children threw themselves into their collaborative tasks with enthusiasm, humour and determination. I hope they are selected; they deserve to be. For me, it was a fantastic experience and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to work on such ambitious and exciting things with such lovely and talented people. Samuel Lucas JMI showed just what can be done with a bit of imagination!

FREE Katie event at the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London.

2009-09-02T18:42:00.004+01:00

No sooner have I returned from the National Galleries in Edinburgh than I have to begin preparing for a big event at the National Gallery in London. The details are in the pictures, and as you will see it is a FREE event open to children of all ages, taking place on September 20th. It promises to be lots of fun and I'm really looking forward to returning to Trafalgar Square and the magnificent National Gallery (London version). Funnily enough, I recently heard (from my publisher) that the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square was invaded by Katie - or at least someone read Katie books for an hour while sitting on it. As her adventures bring her to Trafalgar Square on a regular basis, it makes perfect sense. An unusual honour, but an exciting one!

Katie at the Scottish Royal Academy

2009-09-01T17:18:00.006+01:00

The sun shone and the showers were few in Edinburgh this weekend. It was wonderful to be back in this beautiful city, and in particular to meet my friends at the National Galleries on The Mound, Linda from the education department and Colin the book buyer. It was also a thrill to see a life sized Spanish Princess in the gallery, amongst the Velazquez, Goya, and Murillo paintings. The Royal academy, where the Discovery of Spain exhibition was presented looked magnificent and to sit in such a space to tell (Spanish) stories and illustrate them was an honour indeed. The children came clutching their Katie books and it was a very happy experience. I'm extremely grateful to Linda for all her work organising the event. On the way home I sat next to a very nice teacher, Elaine, who had been to the Book Festival looking for stories about Katie for her Granddaughter (who shares the name). She hadn't found any...so I was able to solve her problem. We had a lovely chat and the journey home whizzed by...thanks Elaine!

Fun Facts about Amazing Artists No. 2

2009-08-25T13:29:00.010+01:00

Joseph Mallard William Turner has always been a particular favourite of mine, perhaps because his magnificent painting Rain Steam and Speed: The Great Western Railway was in one of my books on railways that I loved as a child.

Turner was quite an adventurous painter, in every sense. The way he painted was experimental and advanced for his time. But he also, famously, tied himself to a ship at sea to witness a storm over the waves first hand. Another story, about Rain Steam and Speed, goes like this:
A woman on a railway journey - which in those days was considered an adventure in itself - observed an artist craning his neck to take in a particular view, sketch-book in hand. She followed him, and saw a scene of steam and rain and light. Some time later, in 1844, she was astonished to see a contraversial new painting of that very scene at the Royal Academy of Art by none other than Turner! Excited to have shared her carriage with the great artist, she chastised certain critics whom she overheard criticising Turner's picture, considering his attempts at light and rain to be ridiculously unrealistic. She described her journey with Turner and how she had witnessed the scene first hand (which is thought to be a view over the river Thames near Maidenhead).
I have no idea if all this is true and I cannot remember where I first heard this story...but it's worth telling, just for the fun of it. Another interesting thing about this painting, which is in the National Gallery in London, is the hare which runs in front of the train. It is hard to spot in the original (and a bit easier to see in my illustration here!) but it is definitely there, perhaps a symbol of speed for this extraordinary newfangled machine. People thought they would die of shock when they first travelled by rail. Certainly they would have arrived filthy: many early trains - like this one - had opened topped carriages!

Katie in Edinburgh!

2009-08-18T15:28:00.010+01:00

Suddenly time is running out and I realise I have to prepare for my trip to Edinburgh next week. I'll be telling stories and illustrating them at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. Here's a picture of me in action in January this year...

This time I'll be celebrating Katie and the Spanish Princess, which ties in with their important Discovery of Spain
exhibition. This is quite an honour as I'll be allowed to sit amongst the paintings by Velazquez and others to tell tales and draw pictures. Also a bit humbling to be sat amongst such work!

The event takes place on Saturday August 29th at 1. pm and 2.30pm. It is FREE but adults will need to purchase a ticket for the Discovery of Spain exhibition (which is going to be worth every penny!)

I love the National Gallery in Edinburgh. It's setting and views are surely second-to-none. Everyone there is so warm and friendly, it's an extremely welcoming place and I'm very grateful for this special opportunity. I feel very privilaged and so I am determined to give my best! The stories will be traditional Spanish folk tales...but I have yet to decide how to illustrate them!

Fun Facts about Amazing Artists No.1

2009-08-14T08:00:00.005+01:00

It's well known than Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin were good friends and there even exists a painting, by Paul Gauguin, of Vincent painting his famous sunflowers.

I think there's a picture by Vincent of Paul as well...

Anyway, one story I heard (I hope it's true)that I always really liked, is this:

After Paul left France for his new life in Tahiti on a paradise island, he wrote to Vincent that there were many exotic and beautiful flowers on the island, but sadly no sunflowers. Apparently Vincent wrote back and enclosed some sunflower seeds with his letter. Paul planted them and sunflowers supposedly grow in Tahiti to this day. I like to believe this is a true story...and I'd like to think that the seeds came from the very sunflowers in his famous paintings. I wonder...

Meanwhile "Sunflowers", one version of which hangs in the National Gallery in London, might represent the Four Seasons, represented by buds, flowers, withering flowers and seeds.

One thing is for sure...poor old Vincent never anticpated his sunflowers being printed on umbrellas and magnets and birthday cards and handbags and pencils and rulers and jigsaws and...just about anything you can think of. I wonder if it would make him happy if he could see his paintings celebrated so widely?

Book 10 and beyond

2009-08-11T12:23:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I delivered the new book to Orchard books in London. They seemed pleased and after going through all the art I discussed various publicity plans, at the Edinburgh Festival and the National Galleries in Edinburgh and London. All exciting stuff which I hope works out. Later I took my lovely editor Liz to see the Mariinsky (Kirov) ballet in Swan Lake... yes we are already planning our next book: Ella Bella Ballerina and the Swan Princess (a working title). Today I spoke to my very good friend Jackie Morris and she wants another text. Better sharpen those pencils...

Book 10 - almost finished!

2009-08-09T19:12:00.007+01:00

Tomorrow I go to Orchard Books to deliver the illustrations for the new Katie book, Katie and the Waterlily Pond. It's not been an easy book, I've been ill and there have been various distractions (like holidays in Cromer!). The book will not be published for a year or so, but in the meantime here are a few pictures to show you what I've been up to. I hope you(and Orchard!) like them...

3 days, 3 teachers, 33 children...

2009-07-31T11:14:00.018+01:00

"Find a shadow, find it's corners...

Shadows don't have corners..."

I hope you enjoy these pictures...

They were taken yesterday at the first ever performances of "Ghost Junction" by a charity I am "Artistic Advisor" to: Rhapsode. Our aim is to bring art, music and drama into the lives of children who might not ordinarily get the opportunity to shine. We have a strict "donation only" policy to make our events accessible to all. Yesterday's production was created, rehearsed, designed and produced in just three incredibly intensive days. The children ranged from 6 to 15 and worked amazingly hard. The performances took place in the beautiful Quaker Friend's Meeting House in Letchworth Garden City, which was transformed by the children into a spooky forest. In the story, a group of bickering children become lost. Three ghosts who died in 1953 (Sergei Prokofiev, Hillaire Belloc and Swedish illustrator Elsa Beskow)impart wisdom leading to a happy ending. Actress Jenny Ayres developed the drama together with composer Rebecca Leek, director of Rhapsode, whose vision and energy allowed the children to experience something very special indeed. For more information on Rhapsode, try their website(Paste this into your browser):

http://www.rhapsode.org.uk/

Spot the Frog!!!

2009-07-17T07:04:00.004+01:00

At last! This illustration has driven me NUTS. Monet's technique changed over the years and the later "Waterlily pond" paintings are much softer than his earlier pictures with their more robust brush strokes. This has taken WEEKS to complete. The hardest bit was creating an extention to the left (which you can't see in this picture!), but although the picture is "impressionistic", it is much more calm and ordered and sensitive than earlier pieces, and much harder to pastiche! Still, I persevered with emulsion and pastels and here it is!

As this book is called Katie and the Waterlily Pond, I felt it was really important to get this one as good as possible. It is based on the Waterlily Pond picture in the National Gallery. There are so many other "versions" in galleries all over the world. Many are extremely simular. But crucially the light (and therefore colour) is subtly different. I've tried really hard to match my palette to the painting in London. After this book I may become an expert forger and make my fortune (not for nothing am I called the "Rolf Harris of Children's Books"!!!)

But can you see the frog???

How it all began

2009-07-13T14:49:00.022+01:00

The things that happen to us as children have a profound effect on us. Our early years are when we develop into the people we are as adults. And memories have always been a huge inspiration for my work. Here I am, aged five with my mischievious seven year old sister...Katie. In 1969 we spent the whole day in London with our parents, which was quite an event as we were living in a tiny village in Suffolk, called Blundeston, miles from anywhere. The picture shows us with our mother outside the National Gallery. We didn't go in the gallery that day, but London certainly made an impression on me. I have no idea who is sitting on the lion...something Katie and Jack end up doing in Katie in London. But the first Katie book was Katie's Picture Show which began even earlier...

So many people ask where the idea for Katie came from. Obviously my sister Kate was an inspiration! But also, I remember my parents had a big "coffee table" book called Art Treasures of the World, which I still have to this day. It had all the usual art from Pre-historic man through the Renaissance to Impressionism and to Picasso and the Twentieth Century. I happily scribbled in this book as a toddler, as you can see in the photograph. I had no idea what the paintings were about; I couldn't read. But the paintings were illustrations to me, and I imagined the stories that belonged with them.

Who would have thought that looking through an old book of art would be so important to a little child?

Here's a drawing I did when I was about 4 years old, of a train. I was crazy about trains then, largely due to an old Sixties tv serial, Casey Jones, which I loved. The locomotive in that (The Cannonball Express)was a typical American engine, with cow catcher and bell, both of which found their way into the drawing. We also lived near the main line to Scotland and I remember waiting by the track for the Flying Scotsman, which would roar past "like a great green dragon" to paraphrase The Railway Children. I loved to draw and I was fortunate to have parents who encouraged me. The best Christmas I recall was when I was, I think, 11 years old. My father made a large wooden box and it was filled with everything a young artist could want: paints, paper, pencils, transfers, felt-pens in magnificent rainbow colors, stickers, glue, scissors, palettes...everything. Even today, when I lift the lid, the faded smell of wood and varnish is just potent enough to send me back to that magical Christmas day when I first opened my treasure trove of art. From that moment there was no turning back. I knew it was what I wanted to do.

I always knew I'd end up being an artist. Even though my teachers told me I'd never make a living at it (!!!). That only made me more determined of course. Here's a picture of me aged around 10 years old (on holiday in Devon), and a couple of paintings done around the same time (give or take a year). Happily my mother kept them carefully all these years.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang became something of a childhood obsession with me. I first saw the film in an enormous cinema in Lowestoft (long since demolished) when I was five and vividly remember the ice-cream interval at the very moment the car plunges over a cliff! Cinema was a form of theatre in those days. Of course I couldn't see the film again until it was broadcast on TV (no videos or DVDs then!), which took several years to happen. So I played the L.P. of the songs and painted pictures to remember it all. Oh, and played with my Corgi toy, with it's jewelled headlights and automatic flip-out wings. Happy days...

The donkey in the snow was a school project, executed at middle school. I distinctly remember the art teacher there explaining how the snowflakes needed to be blueish in order to show up against the snow-covered field. I used a pencil dipped in paint to do the snow. He must have liked it as it was hung on the wall. One of those little things that mean so much to a child!
Here is a picture of me sketching amongst the ruins of Tintern Abbey during a family holiday. I was around ten years old and I've sketched ever since. It's such an important thing to do, to really learn to LOOK. Around this time (mid 'seventies) I entered a Blue Peter competition ("Design a train of the future"). I didn't win, but I did get a letter from Valerie Singleton AND a Blue Peter badge! Such accolades are of huge importance to a young child and I know I felt galvanised to continue drawing.

Later, at the Benjamin Britten High School (which, as I write, is about to be demolished), I was the "art editor" of the school newspaper and the first issue's cover is shown. I was a founder-pupil, for the school was then brand new. The newspaper cover shows Britten together with a scene of the Suffolk coast and Dr. Who with a portrait of ABBA (it was the 'Seventies!). While not all my teachers encouraged me (most did the opposite) this newspaper was a wonderful (and useful) introduction to publishing! And lastly, here is my very first published illustration - and not many people can claim that it is to be found in an issue of the ABBA magazine!!! But here it is - another competition runner-up - a poster for "The Winner Takes It All". For many years I had no record of this but recently the owner of a brilliant and fascinating ABBA website kindly helped me out, for which I am extremely grateful. Seeing this again kind of makes up for all the years of ridicule I faced for liking ABBA in the first place...

People often ask me how to motivate their children. Taking risks (for example, entering competitions and NOT winning) and, above all, being encouraged at home AND ideally at school... Give them the time to be creative and celebrate the outcome, no matter what they achieve. These are the things that matter. If your child is keen, get them a variety of materials, and get them drawing - sketching - from life. Let them know you value their pictures. Create a gallery at home, on a wall or on a door. And keep the pictures for posterity!

Although it was glaringly obvious to most people that I was destined to be an illustrator, as a teenager I still imagined I would be a Great Painter, creating magnificent canvasses and starving in a garret. I do still miss those days; I would go off on my bicycle, across Blundeston Marshes, painting in a thoroughly impressionistic manner, but without the sheer genius of the Impressionists, sadly. But I learned a lot about different techniques and to this day the smell of oil paints can still quicken the pulse. I fell in love with nature and the whole idea of capturing the effects of light. Some days I would do five or six paintings. The self-portrait (with hair!)was painted when I was 16. You can see how seriously I took myself by the stern expression.

A few years later, after a very serious illness, my perspective began to change. I still loved the Old Masters, but I could see I wasn't going to be one of them. My Foundation Course at Lowestoft School of Art had been severely interrupted by health matters and at the end of it I was refused a place on a Fine Art degree at Camberwell School of Art, for being too illustrative. That summer I attempted pavement drawings for some consolation (and much needed cash). Together with a friend from my course, I transformed Station Square in Lowestoft (hardly the most promising location) into a regular Art Gallery. Here you can just make out Mona Lisa, and a couple of pictures based on Turner's paintings... and a glimpse of the Hay Wain by Constable. I had such fun copying these famous paintings... and in so doing, a tiny seed of an idea began to grow in my imagination...

Here are the very first sketches for the book that would become Katie's Picture Show. So many people have asked: Where did you get the idea for Katie? Ideas grow from many things. Memories, words, people and experiences. I have shown the books and the pavement drawings that were part of inspiration, and they came together in this dummy book. As a student, at Maidstone college of Art, I was invited, with my colleagues, to enter the Macmillan Children's Book prize, for which students have to submit an idea for an illustrated picture book. This was my intended entry. Unfortunately my tutors hated it so much it was never entered. This was the only project related to children's books on the whole three year course. I was naturally disappointed by their reaction. And this dummy was shoved to the back of a drawer and forgotten...

In 1987 I graduated from Maidstone College of Art with any dream of working as a children's book illustrator firmly crushed. One tutor, Wendy Smith, did suggest (in those last few days) that I might investigate children's books. But it all seemed a bit late. I had a folio full of images for novels by Elizabeth Bowen (The Hotel is shown here) and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Nothing for children. I began the depressing task of contacting publishers and attempting to get work. My first interview - for Pan books - was typical. I was told my work was "too small, too dark and rather suicidal". Which was exactly how I was beginning to feel!

Working my way through an alphabetical list I thought I'd try Faber and Faber, renouned for their stylish covers. But I accidently called Franklin Watts - a children's publisher - and by the time I realised my mistake I was far too embarressed to admit it. And so I went to see them - and took with me my ill-fated Katie's Pictures dummy. Astonishingly, the junior designer I met rather liked it and asked to hang onto it. The company had recently set up a new imprint: Orchard Books, and she thought it might work on their list. I agreed to let her keep it - what did I have to lose? The next day, managing director Judith Elliott called to make an offer!

Here you can see my first typed manuscript (produced on a type-writer!!!) But I wasn't out of the woods yet. First of all, Picasso's Child with a Dove had to go (see picture below). I quickly discovered I could only use out-of-copyright artists (back then it was those artists who have been dead for fifty years).

Then the book had to be taken to the Frankfurt bookfair. And by an astonishing coincedence, Posy Simmons had a new book idea presented at the same fair: Lulu and the Flying Babies, a story about (wait for it) a girl in a gallery. It suddenly looked like this opportunity was slipping away, for how could I, a newcomer, possibly compete with the well-established and brilliant Posy?

Imagine my excitement when the director of Orchard Books, Judith Elliott, returned from the Frankfurt bookfair with good news. It was a yes! they would publish my book and call it Katie's Picture Show! Although the book by Posy Simmonds that had also been shown at Frankfurt was simular, it was evident that Katie would work rather differently by having real paintings reproduced in the story. Indeed it seems this was the first time that a picture book story for children had real paintings incorporated. Of course many other books have adopted this idea since, but I'm rather proud of Katie's pioneering efforts.

And so, while Orchard Books explored permissions and copyrights, I began experimenting with the illustrations. An offer of a contract is one thing, but being able to come up with the goods is quite another. I soon realised that I was woefully ill-equipped by my illustration degree to tackle this book. So I drew and drew and drew. There was no other solution. Slowly the Katie I recognise today began to emerge but it was a torturous process and took many months of experimenting, mostly with line and wash, but on all sorts of papers with a variety of inks and paints.

I had to find an approach that would allow Katie's world to mix with the world in the paintings without jarring too much. I couldn't do anything too quirky or modern as that would just detract from the paintings. I felt the illustrations needed a "classic" quality to them in order for the fantasy to work. Orchard were fantastic, believing in me and standing by me. Never once did they suggest I abandon the project, even though they must have understood how young and inexperienced I was. Their patience gave me confidence.

It was decided that Renoir's Umbrellas (Les Parapluie) would replace the Picasso painting I'd shown in my dummy as that was still in copyright. At the end of the story Katie is absorbed by a piece of modern art. My sketches implied Pollock's style, but he too was in copyright. In the end I chose a piece by Kasimir Malevitch, a Russian avant-garde artist who had been unfortunate enough to die young.

With my paintings chosen, I could now get serious about those pesky illustrations, as well as going through the editing process for the first time with Rosemary Davies, who worked on all the early Katie books.

As I progressed with the illustrations I remember storing the finished pieces under the bed in case of fire or flood. When it was completed I delivered it all by hand (I've never trusted the post, having been a part-time postman myself!).

Finally my first book was approved and sent off to the printers. It was actually real! It was going to happen! I was going to have a book published! Now, where were all those teachers who said I'd never make it?

May 1989. I was living with my parents at the time in a village near Saffron Walden. It was a gloriously sunny morning. A knock at the door - and there was a huge bouquet and a box - containing champagne. A card from Orchard Books read simply: "Congratulations on the publication of Katie's Picture Show".

Of course I'd seen a finished copy beforehand. And these two landmarks in a book's journey - seeing an advance copy and then the day of publication - remain potently thrilling. Here's a letter from dear Judith Elliott (now retired), who had the vision to publish the book and send me on my happy journey into the world of children's books.

The early reviews were not especially kind: "Mayhew's style just about copes with the demands made upon it" said Tony Bradman in The Times. And it didn't exactly fly off the shelves. And yet Katie's Picture Show has remained in print for two decades, thanks to Judith's (and Orchard's) belief in the book.

Over the years the cover has changed with the times, but the insides remain just as they were twenty years ago...

Of course I had no idea that the book would spawn a whole series, and I look back at it now with a mixture of nostaglic indulgence and horror! There are a lot of weak illustrations there; I was only just beginning to find my way. But over the years there have been many kind letters including one from Camp David: Barbara Bush (then the First Lady!) was presented with a copy and was courteous enough to write to me. Usually though the letters and comments are from parents of children begging them to go to a gallery, And this is what the book is all about - celebrating art and artists. I am always so pleased to get these letters and reply to every one of them. I have made some lasting friendships through Katie!

The law of diminishing returns that usually applies to a series has been reversed by Katie. With each new title the series grows in strength and those countries that have not translated her, welcome her into their museum shops in English. She may have begun quietly and uncertainly, but she has grown greatly in confidence (and in sales!) over the years. And the history of art is so full of fascinating and extraordinary paintings, all with stories to tell, that I think the future for Katie is looking good.

More Art in Schools

2009-07-13T09:09:00.001+01:00

Here's another vast painting, created in household emulsion! Inspired by a visit to the National Gallery, children in a year 3 class created this version of Bathers at Asnieres by Seurat. Using only their fingers, to suggest "pointillism", it was dashed off in an afternoon!

Art in Schools

2009-07-11T10:25:00.002+01:00

I don't think I'm really a natural blogger. I've always wondered how people find the time. I also wonder who on earth would be interested in my ponderings. Still, here I am, for better or worse. I'm attaching a picture of a beautiful recreation of Turner's The Fighting Temeraire. Children in Year 3 created it with me using emulsion match pots. Very messy! Very hard work. But so SO worthwhile. They are so proud of it, and me of them.

Opera and Ballet and Cath Kidston

2009-07-08T07:58:00.000+01:00

A new arrival came in the post yesterday, the first copy of the new Ella Bella story, based around Cinderella(displayed here against my wife's Cath Kidston table-cloth, for full retro effect). The ballet by Prokofiev is a little different to the usual story, and little Ella Bella finds herself swept up into another magical world of music and story.

The illustrations are created in three complicated layers, to recreate the vintage methods used in the 40's and 50's...So it's only now it's printed that I can see the full effect. Overall I'm pleased. I wanted a dusty pink cover, and here the shocking fuschia needs sunglasses! But the audience - little girls - will love it, so who am I to spoil their fun?

Speaking of Cath Kidston, I went to Covent Garden yesterday for the final dress rehearsal of Tosca (see my post "Tosca's Kiss). It was tremendous, although I nearly missed curtain-up, on account of my attendant wife who couldn't quite manage a visit to Covent Garden without investigating the Cath Kidston sale. Even I can see how seductively the shop is laid out...but I managed to drag her away in time to see my favourite diva Nelly Miricioiu as Puccini's doomed heroine. We had (complimentary)tickets in the stalls, so it was a real treat. Now it's back to Katie book 10...and it's hard to return to normal life after such exciting events. But I must...the deadline approaches!

Katie and the Water Lily Pond - July 2009

2009-07-05T09:47:00.002+01:00

This is to be the title of the new Katie book. It will be the tenth in the series and the eighth exploring famous paintings. This time the book will focus on just one artist - Claude Monet of course!
The paintings are proving much harder to imitate than I expected. Here are some of the pieces - all work in progress...

The pastiches here are based on two of Monet's paintings, the Rue Montorgueil (with the flag and terrifying perspective!!!), and the Bathers at La Grenouillere.

Tosca's kiss

2009-07-03T15:46:00.000+01:00

Nothing to do with Katie...but I was recently invited to attended a couple of days of rehearsals at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The original soprano scheduled for the title role cancelled, and two Romanian-born singers are taking over. One is the rather famous Angela Gheorghiu. The other is my very dear friend Nelly Miricioiu. Funnily enough, they were both born in the same town, Adjud. Nelly has sung Tosca many times to great acclaim, and is sharing the stage with Bryn Terfel and Marcello Giordani. Imagine my excitement at being at the early rehearsals, watching the singers being directed and practising the many tiny and subtle adjustments to their interpretations. It was art of the highest order and genuinely humbling. The next day they rehearsed on the famous stage itself...with just a piano...but it was surprisingly dramatic and exciting. Just walking across the stage amongst the sets and props, with my favourite diva, was wonderful...unforgettable.

This is a bit of a come-back for Nelly, and she's going to be magnificent. She has such a wealth of knowledge and skill. She's a fantastic lady and I love her to bits. I am so very honoured to have been part of this exciting occasion. Here's a quick sketch I did during the rehearsal...

Princess Margarita

2009-07-02T21:09:00.002+01:00

This lovely "standee" shows the Infanta Margarita (apologies to Velazquez) as she appears in Katie and the Spanish Princess. This life-size cut out has been produced to promote a storytelling at the National Gallery in Edinburgh on August 29th 2009.

A beginning...

2009-07-02T19:05:00.002+01:00

This is entirely Jackie Morris' idea, so we'll see how it goes. Here's one of the sketches for the new Katie book...just to get the ball rolling. Thanks for looking