As I've been busy working of a new part of the website (to be revealed very soon), I didn't make much time to blog last week but to make up for it this week I am kicking things off with one of my favourite artists - Sophie Gilmore.
Inspired by all things natural and often green, Sophie creates delicate, sophisticated illustrations. Her calming aesthetic has allowed her to work on a host of projects and conjure up a diverse range of tones and narratives. Projects ranges from illustrating the sad story of monster-face boy to artworks showing humans’ gentle and playful interactions with animals. Sophie also sells a small selection of prints in her online store, where I am currently trying to decide between the Creeps and Jungle Trickery prints. Decisions, decisions….
Created with a mixture of pencil and watercolour, Sophie’s menagerie of animals sit softly against the plain white backgrounds which give them plenty of room to breathe and maybe even move around. As a self-confessed picture book addict, I would love to see this cast of characters in their own full length adventure. And looking at Sophie’s current portfolio of work, I can only imagine what wondrous narrative she would conjure up. Maybe a rhino who is exposed after living his life as a bear or a Jungle Book inspired story about a little girl who becomes best friends with a big friendly lion?
An exciting new step in Sophie’s career came late last year when she became the latest addition to Studio Mama Wolf, joining fellow illustrators Laura Hughes, Jill Tytherleigh and Sandra Dieckmann in their Hackney based studio and shop. Now working in this super-creative and inspiring space, I am even more excited to see (and share) what illustrated wonders Sophie magics up next!