I don’t make books in a didactic spirit and neither do I direct the illustrations at a specific age group. I don’t really think about children at all when I’m painting, although I think I draw on my own happy childhood. The most I can hope for is that my pictures will hold the attention of children long enough to draw them away for a while from the world of mass produced images that surrounds them.

The discipline and boundaries of book illustration are in some ways appealing but they can be frustrating and limiting, which is why I find it liberating to paint abstract pictures.

I paint to create some sort of order in a world that I find beautiful but arbitrary, bewildering and sometimes cruel.

Fiona Moodie - 2008