Wayne Anderson is an established award-winning artist with a worldwide reputation. His working method is time consuming and his highly detailed images incorporate a variety of media including water colour, ink, coloured and graphite pencil. His original works have been exhibited at galleries and museums throughout the UK and the US, including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and sell through galleries, exhibitions and auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Bonhams. His pictures have been used internationally to illustrate many books and have won a variety of awards including a Gold Medal from the American Society of Illustrators, Overall Winner of the 2001 National Art Library Illustration Awards and the Borders Original Voices Award. Wayne works from his studio overlooking the historic outdoor market in Leicester city centre and also from his home in a village just outside Leicester, where he lives with with his wife Jenny. They have four grown children and two grand-children. Wayne grew up in Leicester and at the age of fifteen began a three year course at Leicester College Of Art followed by a one year Post Graduate course. Wayne says of this period ‘I was lucky to be studying at a time when lecturers were working artists who earned their living in the creative arts and were employed to teach on a part-time basis. They brought into the colleges, knowledge, experience, skills and imagination’ - influences which formed a strong foundation for his future career. On leaving college Wayne moved to London looking for work in an advertising agency or a design studio. However, whilst attending a series of interviews it was suggested that, because of the strong element of drawings and pictures in his portfolio, he should consider freelance illustration. Wayne’s passion had always been to create pictures and so he took this suggestion on board and re-vamped his portfolio. He managed to acquire a small flat in the West End of London and began knocking on doors in the hope of getting some illustration work. Wayne gradually picked up bits and pieces of work and was then commissioned to illustrate the Clement Freud cookery column in the Telegraph colour magazine on a regular basis. This added some stability to his working life and as other commissions came his way Wayne became fairly well established. Having by now married and started a family Wayne and Jenny decided to move out of London and back to Leicester. A turning-point in Wayne’s career came when he produced a series of drawings for a client in Paris, Robert Delpire. In conversation Wayne mentioned that he would love to create his own book, Delpire’s response was “Do it, and I will finance it”. Wayne had total freedom to do as he wished and in 1976 the book, Ratsmagic was published by London publisher Jonathan Cape. It gained a cult following and was followed by other books also based on Wayne’s pictures and stories. In 1977 the images which Wayne created for The Flight of Dragons written by Peter Dickinson, marked the beginning of his reputation as a unique interpreter of dragons in their many forms. The book enjoyed huge success and Wayne created the characters and backgrounds when it was later made into a 90 minute animated film for television and video. Wayne constantly has ideas for new works and can be inspired by a single word or an element from a previous piece of work which he then follows to see where it leads.