”The house next door”
(I grew up in the little house with the red roof)

I have just had a lovely week visiting schools for Book Week. It is always fun and interesting meeting lots of kids and teachers and sharing some of what I know and do as an illustrator/author. And it’s quite a novelty, having to commute further than from the kitchen to the study...

Tricky: Talking to a group comprising year 6 and kindergarten only.

Fascinating: Being asked whether I, as a famous person (!), shop at the same shops, like for groceries and books, as people who aren’t famous...

Challenging: Delivering (I use the word loosely) an illustrator presentation to a group including a child who is totally blind.

Most amazing/insightful/profound/unexpected question: If you have to draw a sad picture, does the character have to be drawn sad?

Wow!! Lovely week!!!!!

Today I brought home all of the paintings from my exhibition at Gordon Library. They have been hanging there for three months...the time has gone so quickly! It is a LOT quicker taking them down than putting them up!

I am busy making more paintings because I love painting of course, but also have a good excuse because I will have a stand at the Affordable Art Fair - Art Sydney 2010 from November 11 - 14 at Moore Park, Sydney. If you’re in Sydney then, come and visit me at stand S7!


The most recent paintings have ended up been linked with stories from my childhood and the home where I grew up in Canada. The one at the top of this page is one of them, also...

Sun shower
(we used to walk in a meadow near our house - I used to lie in the grass during the summer holidays, looking at the clouds and thinking; funny to think now that painting the painting of the meadow is part of the future I wondered about then in the meadow)

Kettle Island
(One time as kids four of us got stranded on the island, which is half way across the Ottawa River, when the wind came up and was too strong for our putt putt boat - that’s Quebec on the other side, and on the Ottawa side there’s a particularly magnificent maple which turns brilliant scarlet every fall )

Spring officially starts tomorrow and already the fresias are out smelling wonderful. I have some cerise witchhazel out too with massed ribbon-like blossoms - fabulous!

P.S. Another KThoKMill (my Twitter name) tweet (tweets are restricted to 140 characters)...

If Shakespeare were on twitter then his plays would be more terse: “2B or not 2B, quoth he. The end.” ...but all in verse.