Artist Feature ~ Ollerina Art ~ Interview & Giveaway



Hi Karen thank you for stopping by the blog to answer questions about Ollerina Art.
Let's get started :)

How long have you been working as an artist?

I've been doing art all my life but after graduating from art school I tried various things from painting commissions to making children's clothes. It's taken me a while to focus but I've been working on Ollerina Art for seven years.

Where did you study?

I studied fine art at The Kent Institute of Art and Design in Canterbury and later did a Masters in Communication Design at The Manchester Metropolitan University.





You have said that your son influenced your robot images, do family and friends often influence your art?

Yes my son did influence my robot picture. He has the best imagination I've ever come across and I am stockpiling sheets of paper with ideas he's come up with for future work, things like The Penguin Inventor making an army of friendly robot penguin helpers! So watch this space.

My partner is also an artist and I am always interrupting his TV to ask about lighting or make him draw on my work if I'm having trouble. I've got a lot of friends who are artists too including my brother so I'm surrounded by it which I love. I'll pretty much get ideas from anyone though, you never know what someone will say to conjure up an image!

Dark Fairy and Soft Silence seem really popular (I have these two, I love them) which you produced for Rebel Books. I know you had a brief of 'dark fairy' to follow but did anything else influence these images?

For Dark Fairy and Soft Silence I got a brief and a sample image of the kind of thing they were after.

I usually do image searches on the Internet for example 'Dark Fairy' to see what comes up and I collect several images to provide inspiration, one could be the colours I want another could be some butterfly wings etc...

Which books have you produced art for?

I haven't produced any images for any other books though it was an aspiration to produce a children's picture book that created Ollerina Art. Ollerina was and still is a character I invented. It's no longer a picture book and will probably take me another ten years to get right but it keeps me entertained.



What is a typical working day for you?

My typical working day starts when the kids go to bed and ends when my eyes start to close. I guess it will be like this until my youngest starts school. Though I do have a friend who sets her alarm for 2am and works through the night to the sound of night time radio until the kids wake up. I'm not sure I have this in me but it's something to think about.

Who is your favourite artist?

I don't have a single favourite artist because there are just too many out there but a current favourite of mine is Camilla d'Errico. My latest inspiration book purchases include Duddle's The Pirate Cruncher. Enrique Fernandez's L'ile Sans Sourire. And The Art of Kung Fu Panda. I am also a huge fan of Disney but I get a lot of my inspiration from artists from The Golden Age of illustration approx 1900-1930. These include artists like Arthur Rackham, Harry Rountree, Mabel Lucie Attwell, Hilda Cowham and tons more who's illustration skills are just awesome.

Can you share with us what you are working on at the moment?

At the moment I am working on some self initiated images, a Halloween picture with trick or treat pixies and a giant spider! An Alice in Wonderland illustration and a more design based image with a branch full of wood spirits (spirited away style).







Thank you for stopping by the blog today to answer questions about your art work. We are looking forward to seeing your new work!

And now for the giveaway!!

Karen has kindly sent several pieces of art work to us here at Midnight Reads for you too try and win. As much as we would have loved to keep it all ourselves we have split the art work up to have a first a second prize:~

1st Prize:~

2nd Prize:~

Giveaway Rules

To enter just leave a comment below and please state your country.

Only one entry per person.

You DO NOT have to follow Midnight Reads to enter.

The 1st prize will only go to a UK address due to postage costs.

The 2nd prize will only go to an overseas address, we didn't want to leave you out!

To allow this to happen we will develop our own number system and winners will be picked at random.

If nobody overseas enters the 2nd prize will go to a UK winner.

Winners will have a week to reply before another winner is chosen.

Giveaway closes 31st May.

Feel free to let others know about this giveaway but please note that only your comment below counts as an entry for your chance to win the giveaway.

Giveaway is now over! CONGRATULATIONS to the winners!!