Once Upon A Place at the Electric Picnic

We had a brilliant weekend hanging out with some of Ireland's best writers at the Electric Picnic music and Arts Festival.

The focus for us was Once Upon A Place, a wonderful book of short stories and poems with illustrations by me. The project was initiated by Laureate Na nÓg, Eoin Colfer to help to reacquaint Irish children with the beauty and magic of our country.

The book is published by Little Island and comes out in October
 Enda Wyley was there reading her own poem from the book, and talking about the other poets featured therein. She's not only an amazing writer but a great reader as well. 

I did some live drawing on Saturday wilst Eoin chatted with author/publisher Siobhán Parkinson, poet Enda Wyley and our expert compere, (give that woman a chatshow) Patricia Forde.

Next day another starry group including  Roddy Doyle, Sarah Webb , Oisín McGann and Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick read  extracts from their stories. 

Click here see what Marie-Louise and husband Michael Emberley got up to at the Electric Picnic.

Many thanks are due to Children's Books Ireland, and Little Island for alltheir work on this project and for making the inaugural Electric Picnic children's literature event such a great success.

Once Upon A Place

Artists often borrow from or pay homage to the work of other artists. 
Some artists also steal other people's ideas simply because they haven't the skill or imagination to originate their own.
I hope it is always clear when I make a visual quote from another person's work that it is done with the utmost respect for the original artist, and for valid artistic reasons. 
Here, for example, is the cover of  Once Upon A Place, edited by Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer and illustrated by me.
Most of you will have noticed that the figure on the rocky foreground, is a visual quotation from the best known painting by Caspar David Friedrich, "The Wanderer Above the Mists".
The stories in the anthology, Once Upon A Place, are set not only in different places, but also in different periods. I hoped to hint at that variety by showing a boy wearing modern dress but posed as in Friedrich’s two hundred year old iconic image. It was also my way of my way of saluting one of my favourite paintings.

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.

Pictiúr goes to Europe

Here's a nice little film about Pictiúr, the exhibition of Irish Children's Book Illustrators curated by my good pal Niamh Sharkey, Laureate na nÓg. 
If you look hard you might just see a couple of my pictures from The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey in there somewhere.
The exhibition toured Europe and is now back in Ireland travelling to venues around the country including IMMA over the Christmas period.
The show is running now at Draíocht, Blancharstown and continues there until October 5th.

The New Laureate na nÓg: Niamh Sharkey

I am delighted by the news that my good pal Niamh Sharkey has just been announced as the next Laureate na nÓg. The announcement was made this morning by President Higgins.
It's a great honour for Niamh, and a great responsibility, but she is well up to the task and I know she will be a wonderful Laureate.
Best of luck to you Niamh and many congratulations!