Artist Feature: Kay Widdowson May 15 2015

Our new artist feature today is all about the lovely Kay Widdowson with her gorgeous illustrations. Along side the help of her two cats, Kay works on printing, etching, painting and linocuts. Her fun, bold and colourful style is perfect for children's books! See more of Kay Widdowson's artwork here.

I studied film and TV graphics at Chesterfield College of Art and went on to work as an animator in children's television in the mid 1980's. I worked as an animator on Dangermouse, Count Duckula, Alias the Jester and on the whizz popping song on The BFG ... and yes I do remember the words off by heart! I went freelance in 1990 and started to work in Children's books. My work has changed over the years and is still changing now. I'd describe it as fun, bold, colourful and painterly and sometimes decorative. 

I live and work in a small victorian terraced house in Chorlton, Manchester with my 2 beautiful cats Tiger(girl cat) and Pablo. I live on the edge of Chorlton meadows/nature reserve. I love watching the wild life and so do my cats!  It inspires a lot of my work these days. I belong to 2 printmaking groups, Prospect Studios in Rossendale and Hot Bed Press in Salford. I love printmaking and I sell my prints, etchings and linocuts, in group shows and exhibitions. All my illustration work is produced in the traditional way, gouache and coloured pencils, to the sounds of radio 2 or radio 4. I love music, especially Jazz, early swing, Motown and early sixties stuff.

When I'm not working (haha, very rare) I love to potter around markets and retro shops or potter around an art gallery. I tend to collect pots, tin toys and books, vintage children's books, pictures and typography letters. I also love gardening. I spend a lot of time replanting what my cats have dug up! 

These days I've been concentrating on my work for licensing and I'm a huge fan of Nathalie Lete and I've always loved the work of Elizabeth Blackadder, Mary Fedden and Tessa Newcomb. I can't think of anything better I'd rather do than go into my studio everyday, supervised by my 2 cats, radio on, tea and biscuits at the ready and create pictures all day.