HAPPY EASTER everyone!! This is the best time of the year as it's a license to eat as much chocolate as you like and I fully intend to... no guilt here :)

What an incredible few weeks it has been!!! I'm still kicking and pinching myself! With Bilbies and Awards (hello my very first golden sticker!) read on below for some behind the scenes insights and a heads up on an amazing collaboration which gives you the opportunity to WIN an original piece of artwork... by me! Read to the end ;)

Easter has arrived!! And so has my absolutely gorgeous new range with Haighs Chocolates, celebrating 30 years of the Easter Bilby. I'm sure everyone has seen these all over social media and my website and I am absolutely thrilled with how the range has turned out. It is such a delight to work with a company that has such an amazing design team and you just know it is going to be stunning once they weave their magic through your illustrations.

My brief was to create a set of illustrations featuring numerous Bilbies with a storybook feel, in different, Australian locations, plus, they had to be black and white so minimal colour could be added digitally. My first question? What was I going to draw these with to achieve a really nice variation in line, to give them life and avoid them looking like a simple black pen line drawing?

Inspiration actually came from the original Winnie the Pooh drawings by Ernest Shepard. I found myself the most gorgeous fountain pen with a rich black ink and this is how they were all done. Six drawings in total drawn in pencil first and then placed on a light table underneath Fabriano Artistico 300gsm Watercolour Hot Press paper and redrawn with this fountain pen. Needless to say there is no room for error with a fountain pen - no Apple 'Z', mistakes cannot be removed or fixed - each one had to be perfect or redrawn. I'm happy to say I only had to redraw one that I messed up. I chose not to use a nib and ink as this can blotch, but the pen moved like melted chocolate across the paper to create the most beautiful line with a varied weight and width. For those arty nerdy friends like me, I purchased it online from Pen Heaven in the UK - link here. It was an absolute delight to create these. You can still order online direct from Haighs but you'll need to be quick!

As a Children's Book creator, one of the things we strive for is to have one of those glorious, very hard to achieve, CBCA Children's Book of the Year Award stickers on our books. Well it's only taken me 15 years and 27 books, but last month I was beyond over the moon to learn not one, but two of my books had been awarded Notables in these Awards for 2023! Needless to say, in South Australia, we were celebrating! Six books by SA creators made it through, a first for our state.

Two weeks later and still on cloud 9, I rode that cloud into Shakespeare's Bookshop, owned by my Booking Agent, Becky Lucas and her husband Mike Lucas - Mike had also just received his first Notable for his nailbiting YA novel 'What We All Saw'. After some retail celebrations, I walked out the door to receive a text message from Katrina, the Author of 'Bev and Kev'.
'Have you spoken to Little Book Press yet?' she asked.
'No, why?'
'Ring them right now and call me immediately,' she said. Well this doesn't sound good, was my first thought. How quickly things can change!
'This is top secret,' said the new Publishing Director, 'you can't tell a soul until it is announced tomorrow... congratulations, 'Bev and Kev' has made the Shortlist.' Best 30 seconds ever! Toughest 24 hours to keep that under my hat! Ok, I may have rushed straight back into the bookshop when no one was in there and not told Becky.

Katrina and I have been happy dancing ever since! The first CBCA Shortlist for both of us and we did it together. Also have to say a massive congrats to Mike Lucas for also making it through and to fellow SA Author Carrie Gallasch for her book 'Market Day', illustrated by Hannah Sommerville, also Shortlisted. We now get to bath in this glory until August when the winners are announced just prior to Book Week. Regardless of the outcome, we will still be celebrating!

FYI, the Little Book Press phone line has since become the 'Bev and Kev' hotline and they have now sold out of hardback copies. Paperbacks are still available but if you don't have a copy yet and are a hardback fanatic like me, email me as I do have a limited number of hardback copies myself.

Also happy to share I recently completed my larger version painting of the 'Wildflowers'. It has since been professionally photographed and gorgeous Fine Art Limited Edition Prints are now available from my website. There will only be 50 available, actually there are 49 left now as number 1 got snapped up before they were even printed!

New designs have been printed and are also available from my website. Postage is free within Australia (minimum 3 card order). All the horsey designs can also be purchased from all Horseland stores throughout Australia and locally in the Adelaide Hills at the Farm Shop - Echunga, Pony - Charleston, Storison - Hahndorf and Ateliers Cafe in Crafers. I'll be adding more doggo designs this year as these were a lot of fun to paint.

Now this is more than a tad exciting! Let the Bluethumb chocolate hunt begin! 2023 marks 30 years of Haigh’s Chocolates supporting the preservation and protection of the native Bilby’s habitat. To celebrate this marriage of art (mine) and chocolate, Bluethumb are giving you the chance to WIN a Special Easter Bilby Prize, consisting of a selection of Haigh’s Easter Bilby chocolates and an original, framed, Easter Bilby watercolour artwork by me! This is the only coloured version like this I have created.
How do I enter???? I'm glad you asked.

Decipher the clues posted daily 7-10 April on Bluethumb’s Instagram @bluethumbart to find the chocolate emoji on their website and be eligible to enter.

Good luck and a very Happy Easter to everyone!! I hope you can find some creative time amongst the chocolate :)