Tina Matthews
Tina Matthews is an author and artist who lives in Australia.
Tina has been writing and illustrating picture books for twenty years . Out of the Egg (published 2007 by HMCo and Walker Books) has now been published in bilingual editions by One Tree House in Auckland , New Zealand. It is available in Te Reo Maori, Chinese, Samoan, Tongan, Niuean, French and Hebrew. A Great Cake, published by Walker Books Australia in 2012 - was awarded the LIANZA Russell Clark Award for illustration in 2013. So Many Wonderfuls was published in 2014 and Do What You're Doing in 2017. Home - a nursery frieze was published in 2018. The Black and White Baby Mobile for first published in 1993. The rights of all these books are held by KeeponTelling.com
Below Tina talks about her own picture books and some of her favourite by other authors.
"The pictures from my books are made with wood blocks, ink, paint, paper, and stencils and sponges. I loved the process of working out how much of the story could be told through pictures alone.
Out of the Egg is about a hen, a seed, a little red chick and a great green whispery tree. It's about not giving up on a good idea, and children not accepting the silly things their parents sometimes say. It's an old fashioned story with a new ending and the pictures are made in a very old fashioned way too. I printed each of them from hand carved wood blocks. In 2022 Out of the Egg has been published in bilingual editions - Te Reo Maori/English and Samoan / English - by One Tree House in Auckland, NZ.
Waiting for Later is about bigness and smallness and there's a tree in it too. The top of a tree always seemed a very safe place to me when I was small. From way up there I could see places I knew, tiny in the distance. I could hear people I loved near by. And I could feel the world turning as the sun or the sickle moon went down. Those recollections were the start of this story. Waiting for Later has been reissued by KEEPonTELLING.com in 2022.
I loved writing and illustrating A Great Cake. It’s quite unlike my other books and has only 64 different words, most of those from a recipe which is repeated four times. That doesn’t sound like much of a story but, with the help of the pictures, a lot happens in the 32 pages and by the end of the book the reader knows all the characters- and a butter cake recipe- pretty well. It’s a book about the pleasure of imaginative play. And, as the title suggests, it’s also a book about cake. More particularly, about how to make a cake and eat it with friends. A Great Cake was published by Walker Books Australia in 2012 and has been reissued by KEEPonTELLING.com in 2022.
So Many Wonderfuls is about the joy of every day things and the pleasure of knowing the people you live amongst. It's about a town and its public places - the school and the park, the beach and the community hall - which can be enjoyed by all. They are not for sale. The text includes no pronouns because it is all about the 'everyone'.
Do What You’re Doing, published in 2017, is a read aloud, sing along story for young and old. It’s a book for the classroom, library or home about the perils of overdoing it and the pleasures of undivided attention. And for those prone to digital distraction and compulsive multi-tasking Do What You’re Doing offers a useful mantra for a simpler life.
HOME is a wall frieze for babies and kids. It's about a farm and a journey and includes poems about all the animals the babies stop to talk to. The pictures invite conversation about farmyard noises, colours, numbers and baby antics and everyone will enjoy the rhyme and repetition of the short poems.There's also bee hidden in every picture.
Home - a nursery frieze, my Black and White Mobile for Newborn Babies and my picture books Waiting for Later and A Great Cake are available on Amazon.com.au
Tina talks about some of her favourite picture books here:
https://shepherd.com/best-books/stealing-when-why-and-whether-to-do-it
There is more information about these books and my work at:
www.ttinamatthews.com
www.KEEPonTELLING.com
