James Foley

Viking longship-builders in Murwillumbah

These incredible longships were handcrafted by Year 4 viklings at St Joseph’s Primary School in Murwillumbah.

Their teacher Deborah Walker has put in a huge effort. Thanks for bringing the book to life and encouraging the next generation of marauders!

Thanks also to the school’s library coordinator Melissa Fraser for sending the photos.

Melissa tells us the school is busting to read the sequel to The Last Viking. We’re working as quick as we can Melissa- I’ll get on to the artwork in the middle of next year, fingers crossed.

Studio Open Day- Sunday Nov 25, 2-5pm

My studio is in a Leederville complex called The Ward, and on Nov 25th we’re having an open day!

Come see where I work and what I’m working on next. I’ll have prints from ‘The Last Viking’ for sale too.

Plus you’ll get to meet all the other amazing artists here: filmmakers, photographers, illustrators, painters, textile workers… it will be awesome.

Come down and say hi! We’ll be open from 2-5pm.

More info at Artsource’s website.

The kids’ votes are in – The Last Viking wins the 2012 Hoffman Award!

The Last Viking has won the Hoffman Award in the 2012 West Australian Young Readers’ Awards.

The Hoffman is awarded to the highest-ranked book by a West Australian creator (in this case, 2 creators!).

It sure is an honour to have kids pick and then vote for their favourite book. Thanks to all the WA young readers who voted, we couldn’t be happier.

Make-your-own Viking god or goddess

One of the best parts of school visits is seeing the great ideas that schoolkids come up with. Here’s a bunch of viking god and goddesses, designed by students during children’s book week this year. God of Wind, by Tom Isabella the Goddess of Patterns, by Maddy Bothgolong, God of Fire, by Rohan A portrait of Thor that also folds up into a paper plane, by Christian This guy looks familiar… The God of Literature, by Catherine And finally, Optimus Prime, by Brayden. It’s not a viking god but it looks really cool.

Last Viking wins CBCA award (according to Junior Judges)

That’s right- junior judges around Australia voted The Last Viking for winner of Early Childhood Book of the Year 2012.

The Junior Judges Project is a free online program offered to schools by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. It’s a great way to get your classroom interested in the shortlisted books, so if you’re a teacher, consider it for next year.

Award-winning Viking display by young berserkers

Norm and I were stunned to see the following Viking-inspired artwork from year 2s at Guildford Grammar in Western Australia.

There’s Viking helmets, self-portraits with rune-encoded titles, and longships all over the place! It’s no wonder they won an in-school Children’s Book Week competition for best classroom decorations.

Well done year 2s. This really made us smile 🙂

Children’s Book Week, Cocos style

As part of my Children’s Book Month, I was invited to the Cocos Islands.

Yep. You heard right.

I was flown out to the middle of the Indian Ocean, to a beautiful tropical atoll, a ring of 26 islands of which only 2 are inhabited, and I was paid to be there and draw with groups of schoolkids.

My job is tops.

Continue reading “Children’s Book Week, Cocos style”

Children’s Book Week, Kalgoorlie style

I spent the last week of August in Kalgoorlie, an old mining town in Western Australia’s goldfields. The Library hosted me, and I saw three school groups a day for 5 days.

I’d been to Kalgoorlie twice before but only ever briefly (my first visit was for year 7 camp back in 1994). This time around I got to explore it more, and also see the nearby towns of Coolgardie and Kambalda.

Out there I was struck by how big the sky was. Sometimes you can see all the way to the horizon with nothing in the way.

They’ve got big trucks too.

And a big pit- a superpit, in fact.

Continue reading “Children’s Book Week, Kalgoorlie style”

Children’s Book Week 2012

Children’s Book Week has become Children’s Book Term for me this year.

Thank you Mt Hawthorn Primary, Rockingham Library, Tranby College, Melville Libraries, Clarkson Library, Kwinana Library, South Perth Library, Manning Library and Subiaco Library for inviting me.

workshopping under Shaun Tan's mural at Subiaco Library — workshopping under Shaun Tan’s mural at Subiaco Library

Some feedback from the sessions so far:

“Inspiring!”
“James’ wonderful storytelling captured everyone’s attention, great research and great activities.”
“Best Book Week session I have ever attended… Subiaco Primary School”
“The combination of drawing, history facts about Vikings and storytelling was fantastic and really captured the children’s attention and engaged them.”

Here’s some pieces of work that students gave me after the sessions. In one activity, I ask students to design their own viking god or goddess.

Continue reading “Children’s Book Week 2012”

Better homes and gardens for those with Alzheimer’s

Earlier this year I worked with Alzheimer’s Australia on an interactive website.

The website shows how to adapt living environments for people with Alzheimer’s.

I did the illustrations for each living environment. The illustrations stretched my perspective skills (and vice versa- I stretched the perspective in quite a few of these!). Here’s some examples.