Artist of the month; Jill Barklem

I have long had a weakness for the subject of 'romantic clutter' and this has manifested itself over the years in a number of my own images, most notably this picture which I drew ten years ago at art school and which was directly influenced by Bernie Wrightson and indirectly influenced by Jill Barklem. Barklem is an English childrens book author and illustrator whose Brambly Hedge series feature stories about anthropomorphic mice living in homes carved into the inetriors of trees and in comfortable holes in the ground. Theres a lot of the same 'Old England vibe' about the books, not least the illustrations, that one finds in Tolkien's descriptions of Bag End.

My brother Peter had these books when we were young and as a boy I would love to examine the drawings finding curious and hidden details. That fascination has continued and I often find myself planning drawings of similarly clutttered rooms, though in my case, I'd populate them with steam punk dwarves and gnomes with ink stained fingers, in fact once upon a time when I was still learning the basics, I did.