Sean E Avery – James Foley

Spontaneous Storytime at the State Library of NSW

Who’s up for another Spontaneous Storytime?

This one comes from a session at the State Library of NSW last weekend. I was joined by my author-illustrator bud Sean E Avery (creator of Frank’s Red Hat and Friendly Bee) who provided the live illustrations!

We had some fantastic ideas from the kids in the audience; check out the story below.

‘MEG WYNNE THE PIG-UIN’

Sunday October 26, 10:30am-11:30am

In which a half-pig, half-penguin called Meg Wynne – who spends most of her time diving underwater to catch cabbage fish – decides to chase her long-held dream of flying through the sky.

Picture A Story exhibition

The State Library of WA has a new exhibition beginning November 2nd called Picture A Story, comprising works from their Australian children’s book illustration collection.

You’ll see artwork by Shaun Tan, Ron Brooks, Graeme Base, Alison Lester, Frane Lessac, Leigh Hobbs, Matt Ottley, Sean E Avery and me!

There’ll be originals, sketches and sculptures I made for The Last Viking… including this little reference maquette for Josh.

And as you probably noticed at the top of the post, Wolverine is the official mascot of the exhibition!

More info at the State Library website.

There was a Babushka who swallowed a fly

An illustrator friend, Karen Blair, recently had her first bub. So our local illustrator crew made a set of Russian nesting dolls for her, based on The old lady who swallowed a fly.

It was my job to paint the goat.

Here’s the sketch-