katie cleminson 08/04/2011 katie cleminson 08/04/2011

Dreaming of the sea

We've had a really beautiful spell of hot weather, and it's made me think of how much I want to go to the seaside. I lived in Cornwall for a while, and I often miss it, but my heart belongs to Kimmeridge bay in Dorset. As children, me and my brothers spent most of our weekends and summers camping and going to Kimmeridge. We'd swim, go rock-pooling, windsurfing, sail in my Dad's little boat, draw on the rocks, and take the steep walk up to Clavell's tower and along the cliff path.

Last June, my two older brothers and I took a day trip to Kimmeridge, it was so lovely to visit and remember how much fun we had! All this week I'm dreaming of swimming in that deep, cold, inky blue water.

katie cleminson 05/04/2011 katie cleminson 05/04/2011

Otto sneak-peek

As promised, here is a little vignette from my BRAND NEW book 'Otto the Book Bear' out in July!! So tell me, do you like the look of him?

katie cleminson 04/04/2011 katie cleminson 04/04/2011

Paper magic

These origami creations by South African artist Quentin Trollip are FANTASTIC. His flickr account has more. Apparently these are made from one square of origami paper, pretty impressive! (Found via Miss Moss)

katie cleminson 01/04/2011 katie cleminson 01/04/2011

50 PICTURE BOOKS TO INSPIRE

I was asked by Zoe at playingbythebook to contribute a list of my ten favourite picture books. It was quite tough, and books keep coming to mind that I wish I'd had room to put in. Do go and have a look at mine and the other contributor's lists- Viv Schwarz, Tim Hopgood, James Mayhew, Jan Pienkowski, and Clara Vulliamy. From our lists you'll see that Maurice Sendak and Alexis Deacon do rather well!

Lovely reader, what is your favourite picture book?

katie cleminson 31/03/2011 katie cleminson 31/03/2011

Laura Carlin

Wow, who knew Laura Carlin was doing ceramics? I just read about it in 'World of Interiors', she has a blog here if you want to see more! I would just LOVE one of her plates.

katie cleminson 30/03/2011 katie cleminson 30/03/2011

Shaun Tan

Yesterday the Australian artist Shaun Tan was announced as the winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. A prestigious prize, with the largest prize money of any in Children's literature. Tan has not only just been handed a cheque for £490,000, he also recently won an Oscar for his short animation 'The Lost Thing'. The animation was adapted from his picture book, of the same title (picture right), and you can download the short on iTunes.

If you don't know Tan's work, it's worth familiarising yourself, because we are certainly going to be seeing a lot more of him! His most recent book 'Tales of Outer Suburbia' (image right) is a collection of short stories, with a good mix of his both his painterly style and exquisite pencil work.