Narelle Oliver

Author, Illustrator

Narelle Oliver is author and illustrator of award-winning picture books which feature narratives based on both natural history and imaginary/social/mathematical themes. Equipped with a Bachelor of Education, teaching experience, and twenty years of publication experience, she has conducted writing and illustrating workshops across Australia and South-East Asia.

Narelle will tour schools in Melbourne, Victoria and Sydney, New South Wales in August 2012.

Where were you born?

I was born in Toowoomba to parents obsessed with the visual arts. As a family, we regularly explored local countryside with a view to photographing or painting it.

What other jobs have you had?

After high school, I trained to be a Teacher of the Deaf while also majoring in design and printmaking. I taught at the Queensland School for the Deaf where I was immersed in sign language, visual arts, and picture books. My interest in early language development and children’s literature also led me into work as a Lecturer and Tutor at tertiary level (Language and Children’s Literature subjects) at the University of Southern Queensland.

What themes are recurring in your work?

Many of my titles have been inspired by natural environments I have explored with my parents and, later, with my husband who trained in Environment Science and worked for the National Parks and Wildlife Service for some years. I have a specific interest (obsession?) in animal adaptation, which began at age eight when I first encountered a tawny frogmouth disguised as a tree branch on my aunt’s farm. Other books of mine have mathematical, historical and social themes with a more imaginary focus. The linocut print medium is a special feature of my illustrations, which have been exhibited throughout Australia.

What are you passionate about?

Bucking against the trend of children spending more and more time in front of computer games and screens, I am passionate about inspiring children to explore natural environments and to be curious about less well-known animals and their ingenious adaptations. I am also passionate about visual arts, teaching drawing ‘from the right hand-side of the brain’, story (in general) and all forms of print-making.

Anything else you’d like to share with us?

Some of my other interests are: ballet (after lessons from age 8 to 16); swing dancing – that’s dance from 30s and 40s such as Charleston and Jitterbug , trying to speak the French language (after learning it in the written form in high school), reading (I’m in a book club and love it) and bushwalking (I’m preparing to walk the Milford Sound Track in New Zealand, with friends in late 2010).