From The Library With Love

My friend and talented author Kate Thompson released her first podcast last year, "From The Library With Love" and I am thrilled to say that she asked me to paint the cover for it. This is a project I am very proud to have played a tiny part in.

Kate's podcast is for anyone whose life has been changed by reading and features interviews with Librarians, bestselling authors and our wartime generation sharing their love of books, reading and some extraordinary stories.

In 2019 Kate uncovered a story about a forgotten library built along the tracks of a tube tunnel (Bethnal Green) during the Blitz and it was the inspiration for her seventh novel, 'The Little Wartime Library' and I included this title on one of the book spines in my painting.

For the podcast cover I used warm, cosy colours to create shelves full of old books and put a few hidden things on the spines... such as 'London', 'Brave Women' and some tiny poppies which are a symbol of Remembrance and hope for a peaceful future in the aftermath of the First World War.

I usually paint scenes from real life so it was a fun challenge to paint something from my imagination and I thoroughly enjoyed painting it!

As an experiment I recently painted the side of the pages of my copy of the Little Wartime Library (for fun) and would like to learn more about creating this sort of artwork, it is a lot harder than it sounds and I need to practice more... I love trying new creative things! If anyone has any knowledge about painting the sides of books I would love to hear from you!