Buzzing with Books

I am delighted to confirm that I will be taking part in the Buzzing with Books Conference at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick on the 22nd and 23rd of May. 

It should be a lot of fun as the other keynote speakers are all good friends of mine. Siobhan Parkinson, our first Laureate na nÓg will be there, as will my birthday buddy Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick and her husband Michael Emberley.

The conference stems from the long partnership between Mary Immaculate College and Frostburg State University, located in western Maryland, USA, as well as from the input of other important conference partners.

I was privileged to speak at Frostburg's own Children's literature Festival a number of years ago and am looking forward to meeting up with some old friends from Maryland who will be visiting the conference in Limerick. And I also look forward to meeting some of you there too I hope.

Emma Modelling at Kennedy's

 I really enjoyed Saturday's portrait sketch workshop at Kennedy Art. Emma was our model. It was great to meet her again after a gap of a few years when she was off travelling the world.

As usual my workshop starts with me doing a twenty minute demo showing how I do a rough outline sketch in dilute Raw Umber. Then I set the students off to do their own paintings and I make my way around each of them for one-to-one tuition throughout the day.
On Saturday I was able to spend another twenty minutes after lunch on my demo piece above.
Below are some shots from the day and a few of the lovely portrait sketches that my attendees painted on the day.

You can contact Kennedy's for information about forthcoming workshops. 

ph  + 353 (1) 475 1749info@kennedyart.com  

Detail of my Portrait Sketch of Des

Here's a scan of the painting I did of Des at my last Kennedy Art portrait sketch workshop. 
I only had 30 minutes to work on it in all, but I was very pleased with the fluidity in the handling of the paint.
My next two workshops at Kennedys are on the 15th Feb and the 8th March.
I am very excited about the two day workshop I will be giving in Cavan on the 3rd and 4th of May.
Contact Anne for more information.(brady.anne@rocketmail.com)

Mysterious Traveller Long Listed for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal

I'm delighted to be on the 2014 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal long list for my work on Mysterious Traveller by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham, published by Walker Books.
I was lucky enough to win the Kate Greenaway twice in the 1990s for The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey and for When Jessie Came Across the Sea. 
There are some great illustrators long listed with me but fingers crossed for the shortlist anyway!