Gwen Millward

Original picture book artwork by Gwen Millward is available for purchase from Children’s Book Illustration.

Gwen Millward spent her childhood in Powys, mid Wales and went to a Welsh speaking school in the village of Llanfair Caereinion. Her parents would often find her at the bottom of the garden studying and drawing the tiny insects hidden under the bushes. Her natural talent for drawing led her to study Illustration in Edinburgh where she came away with a 1st class degree and was awarded the Helen A. Rose Bequest for art.

On graduating in 2002 Gwen Millward went straight into the world of children’s picture books and was published first by Puffin with Guess What I Found in Dragon Wood. Since then Gwen has illustrated many more, two of which she has also written. These are Bear and Bird and Bear, Bird & Frog; both published by Egmont. Gwen has collaborated both with her mother Jenny Nimmo on The Beasties, and more recently with her sister Myfanwy on Rosie’s Special Present, published in 2015.

Gwen isn’t afraid to experiment with new styles and techniques. Her earlier books including The Bog Baby and The King of Tiny Things (both written by Jeanne Willis) are painted in watercolour with pencil and are full of the minutest details. Rosie’s Special Present reveals a more graphic style of illustration with more colour and looser lines. A new book, Stories From Bug Garden, published by Candlewick Press in March 2016, has Gwen using a dip pen and indian ink and giving her insects heavy strong outlines. She’s currently writing and illustrating a new text …to be revealed soon!

Gwen has won numerous awards including the Booktrust Early Years Award 2008 for The Bog Baby. Her work has also been exhibited in the touring Puffin Picture Book Boutique as well as her fine art paintings at the Centre Space Gallery in Bristol.

She now lives in Bristol with her partner (a model maker for Aardman Studios) and very young son Max.