About Fiona Willis
I trained as a pediatric nurse years ago but I have always been a tremendous doodler, making patterns on or around the margins of any piece of paper, mainly to keep me focused. When I started drawing in a less abstract way, I realised that some of the pictures had been swirling around in my head since I was a young girl.
I grew up in South Devon on the coast. I spent hours looking under stones for little crabs or treasure on the tideline. We had a big garden and I loved to hide in my den or climb trees, I collected snails and germinated seeds. I now realise that these activities have greatly influenced my drawings.
In the 60s and 70s my mother was a draughtswoman and used Rotring pens to draw the fine detail. They often clogged and flooded and I was given the ones that were particularly troublesome. I use those pens now and they enable me to get the fine detail on my pictures. They're still troublesome and I still have to spend a long time cleaning them and shaking the ink down to the nib.
Although I now live in the great city of Bristol and my children are much older, I still get so much pleasure from finding a cowrie, rolled glass or beautiful stone on the tideline, somewhere. Gig rowing introduced me to the Iles of Scilly and has helped me to keep the all-important connection to the sea and the South West.
I use watercolour, pen and ink, crayon and, more recently, collage and linocut. My originals are profesionally reproduced on watercolour paper as limited edition giclee prints. I have also had some images reproduced as greetings cards, tea towels and as unlimited prints available in small frames.
If you are interested in trade purchases of any of my products, please contact me
Needless to say, all artwork on this site is copyright Fiona Willis and may not be reproduced in any form without my written permission. I am a member of The Association of Illustrators