Absence

Illustration of a little girl's boots by Hannah Foley. All rights reserved (www.owlingabout.co.uk).I’m going away for two weeks. Outrageous, I hear you cry! Surely there’s washing to be done and vegetables to puree? Well yes, there is, but I’m leaving Big Dreamer in charge. Not for the whole two weeks. That would be madness. He’d never survive. I’m coming back after one and then we’ll all be away. I’m slightly nervous what shape the house and the children will be in by the end of that first week but as long as they’re clothed, fed and a red sock hasn’t been put in with the whites I’ll be satisfied.

I joke of course. What will actually happen is that they will all have the time of their lives. That’s what Dad’s do best isn’t it? Or at least Big Dreamer does. He rocks up, plays all sorts of wild imaginative games, meanwhile ignoring the everyday functions of the house, and everyone has a ball. Nevermind that no one will have any clean pants to wear the week after. Who needs clean pants when you can pretend your Dad is a tiger chasing you through a jungle, who can only be stopped by being pelted with segments of satsuma?

Just where do you think you’re going anyway, I hear you shout. I’m going on a course. Yes, a residential course, where I will be away and Internet is banned. Very exciting. You have to roll the ‘r’ in that ‘very’ to get the full benefit. Don’t worry I’ll fill you in when I get back…for now I’m just quite nervous. Then we’ll be heading south for my little niece’s christening. Hilarious moments are obligatory at christenings so I’ll return with some of those to regale you with too. See you soon!

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Boilers

Illustration of a little girl's party shoes by Hannah Foley. All rights reserved (www.owlingabout.co.uk).This weekend our boiler broke down. We had no hot water or heating just as autumn blew in. Boilers have a sixth sense about impending cold weather, and a masochistic sense of humour. It’s all fixed now, which is a relief as Monday’s school run return leg brought with it my first proper drenching. Not to mention this morning’s frost, which made me turn the house over in my mind’s eye all the way there and back, searching for gloves.

In true Sesame Street tradition, this week Little Owl’s reading book is all about the letter A and I have my first ever parents evening to go to. I feel like I’m hurdling parenting rites of passage in multiples.

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Centre of the Cell

Illustration for Centre of the Cell puppet show by Hannah Foley. All rights reserved (www.owlingabout.co.uk).Big Dreamer talked endlessly about picking the blackberries that filled the brambles across the road from our house. Of course he didn’t get round to it and now they have gone over. As everyone knows, the Devil is in blackberries after the end of September so he didn’t want to take any chances.

Here’s an image from a lovely project I’ve not long finished. It was a series of illustrations for a science-based puppet show for children, being produced by science education charity, Centre of the Cell.

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New website

New website of Hannah Foley (illustrator)Almost on an annual basis I seem to decide that my current website isn’t working for me and do an overhaul. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I hope it indicates that I’m growing and developing. We have been working hard on just such an overhaul and the new website is now live. It’s not as fun as the old one but it’s more practical and let’s the work do the talking. Bear with us over the next few days as we tweak and test. There’s a few glitches and more work to add but we’ll get it sorted as soon as possible.

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Picture Hooks Conference 2014

Picture Hooks conference headerThis weekend I went along to a conference about children’s picture books, called Picture Hooks. You might remember that I went to their inaugural conference a couple of years ago (read about it here). It was held at Edinburgh College of Art, which was where I studied, so it was lovely to be back there. Even better, the Head of the Illustration Department, Jonathan Gibbs, opened the conference. It was great to hear him speak again and really good to have a proper catch up with him during the lunch break. He’s an illustration giant and a bit of a hero of mine.

The day was action-packed, starting with Val Brathwaite from Bloomsbury. Her passion for picture books came across clearly and she is hugely experienced. While acknowledging the competitiveness of the industry she was encouraging in the breadth of work she talked about and the evident care Bloomsbury takes of its authors and illustrators. We heard from agents Lindsey Fraser and Lucy Juckes. Chrissie Boehm from Artful Doodlers and Ashley McCracken from Sugar Snap Studios talked about opportunities for illustrators outside of picture books.

My absolute favourite session was from Mark Hearld and Simon Lewin. I’ve heard Mark speak on a number of occasions and he never fails to be brilliant. For those of you who don’t know, Mark is an incredible illustrator and designer with a colossal and highly regarded output. He has worked on everything from designing fabrics to producing his own fine art prints. In amongst all the industry chat of markets and sales he reminded me why I do what I do. He flung his arms wide, advocating that we dump the word “style” for “voice”. His joy and enthusiasm are infectious. He name-dropped a vast array of influences as if they were dear friends and in so doing, he reminded me that there are no short cuts. Anything with any staying power and any value needs to come from deep and well-established roots. Acquaintances can be made quickly but friendship always takes time.

Mark didn’t say this, but his life as an artist felt like a call to produce the very best we can for our little ones. Picture books have a hallowed home in the heart of a child so if any one of us ever has the good fortune to write or illustrate a picture book for children let it be one that is so rich and genuine that it is treasured by generations. And in that, there is a funny contradiction, like the way you have to look at the dark sky next to a star in order to see the star. It seems to me that it is no good pursuing picture books in themselves but only as offspring of this wonderful creative pursuit called illustration: one fruit on a tree that is always stretching and straining for the sky.

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Boating day

Illustration fo a little girl's sandals by Hannah Foley. All rights reserved (www.owlingabout.co.uk).We spent an afternoon this weekend planting bulbs in two big troughs we have in the garden. One is a mixture of crocuses and tulips, the other is a combination of grape hyacinths and daffodils. The idea is that one lot (the crocuses for example) will come up first followed by the other (the tulips), giving us colour for longer next spring. Canny eh? Wish I’d thought of it but they came in a helpful pack from our local garden centre. The day I bought those bulbs the garden centre happened to be having a sale on shrubs so I came home with one or two…or four…and a couple of climbers…and some perennials. Then my Dad was up visiting and, Johnny Appleseed wannabe that he is, he brought a few specimens from his garden to plant in ours.

This house is supposed to be a ‘transit’ house; a house in between our last home and our new one. It’s practical and it’s not for long. But I just can’t resist doing something with the garden. Honestly, it’s bleak out there. It’s clear nobody has ever cared for it and surely humans need flowers as much as bees do.

Today we woke to a thick mist enveloping everything. Traffic reports on the radio described tales of fog-related travel woe. It seemed weirdly appropriate for the day the country would vote for or against independence. It was as if the weather was matching the secrecy of the polling booth. Neighbours became shadowy figures flitting through the mist. It made me want to whisper. When we got to the church hall that is doubling as our local polling station Little Owl wondered aloud where the boat was. I don’t think I can have explained it very well…starting with my pronunciation!

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Lining Up

Sketch of a little boy sleeping by Hannah Foley. All rights reserved (www.owlingabout.co.uk).

Conkers are swelling in their spikey cases on the horse chestnut trees and blackberries are ripening amongst the brambles. Beechnut husks crunch beneath our shoes on our way to and from school. One misty morning revealed a multitude of cobweb homes spanning the bushes picked out in dewdrops, for all the world like a spidery complex of high rise flats. I have noticed a new trait in Little Owl since starting school: the ability to absentmindedly line up behind anyone who presents a stationary obstacle in her path. She giggles to herself when she realizes her mistake. I hope that I don’t one day find her distractedly queuing up behind a rubbish bin or lamppost.

Here is a doodle of Finch having a doze. It’s from my sketchbook, hence the funny grey bar from the spine (in case you were wondering!).

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Soaring

Photograph of a beech tree canopy by R. Foley. All rights reserved (www.owlignabout.co.uk)We often think of the farm and miss it very much (for new readers, we moved to our current and more urban home in April). We wonder to each other how the kingfisher down by the river fared this year, how the lambs have done, and whether the silage was good. The Tupping Fair will be soon. Wouldn’t it be wonderful just now, we say, to soar through the tops of the trees on our lovely old rope swing in the wood at the bottom of the garden?

It’s easy to think nowhere could be as special, but that is the wonderful thing about nature and the wild outdoors, it’s never far away. And if you keep your eyes peeled there’s always treasures to spot. So, on a gusty afternoon this week we headed for the hills. In a hidden dell we found a green, grassy pond teeming with dragonflies and damselflies. It will be wonderful to return as the year turns to see the reeds aglisten with frost and later on, the water a haven to clutches of frogspawn.

From the highest point we could find we surveyed the plain below and inhaled deep lungfuls of blustery fresh air, spreading our arms wide to the sky in gleeful abandon. On the other side of the hill we discovered a huge patch of bilberry bushes, the fruit now over, but a spot to remember for next year. On our way back down we followed an old boundary bank riven with ancient beech trees and hanging from a branch in a perfect hollow, do you know what we found? Only a rope swing! There we soared into the treetops and then sat underneath for hot tea from a flask, savouring the serendipity of nature’s providence in our new home.

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Working hard

Illustration of a little girl's winter boots by Hannah Foley. All rights reserved (www.owlingabout.co.uk).Dip, ting-ting, scritch, scratch, screetch, scritch, scritch.

Dip, ting-ting, screetch, scratch.

Dip, ting-ting, scritch, screetch, scratch.

These are the sounds of me working very hard on several looming deadlines…eeek!

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Storage

Illustration of a cupboard by Hannah Foley. All rights reserved (www.owlingabout.co.uk).Is anyone else out there obsessed by storage? Wherever this obsession comes from, it must be the same place that makes me go mad in Lakeland (read more here). If I’m honest I’d go so far as to say that I think there is something rather beautiful about a really good storage solution.

The cupboard pictured here is one such example. Doesn’t look much does it? And that’s exactly its charm! When it’s not in use it blends into the background. You would hardly give it a second thought. But behind those closed doors is my illustration world.

It’s new, which is why I’m all excited and going on about it. For ages I’ve wrestled with my Nan’s lovely but rapidly disintegrating old bureau. Being freelance I work from home and we don’t have a lot of space so my ‘office’ is also our front room, complete with meddling children (not a brilliant combination with a stray lino-cutting tool). But now we’ve invested in this. Go on, let me tell you about it…

Okay, so behind the top two doors are two big shelves. The top one is full of inks, paints, pens, and that sort of thing. The next one is home to my sketchbooks and other more boring books like duplicate receipt books (which I do actually find strangely exciting…how cool is the blue duplicating paper?). The next pair of doors house my computer and its associated paraphernalia. This bit of the cupboard also has a pull-out desktop that slides underneath the computer so no need to clear away my latest bit of work in progress…just slide and shut! The bottom two doors are home to my printer, some bits of stock, and big folders of work. Finally I have some boxes that sit on the very top where I store interesting bits of paper (it’s an arty thing), amongst other stuff. I even have one box which is totally empty. That’s the most exciting box of all. I have an empty box full of potential. I’m unlikely to ever store anything in it but just think of all the wonderful things I might store in it. That’s the best storage solution of all!

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