About Me.
I’m a Northern Irish artist, illustrator, and children’s author. Born in Derry/Londonderry in 1972, my artistic career began with finely observed drawings of Cinderella’s ballgowns on the pavement outside my house using chalk that my brother and I nicked from the building site up the road. My creative skills earned me the family nickname ‘Dawnie Doodles’.
At 19, I went to art college in Belfast, then a year later, to the School of Art in Newcastle Upon Tyne. After a successful career as an advertising copywriter in London, I worked from home as a mum of two, a freelance writer, a photographer, an art tutor, a full time artist, and more recently, an author. I split my time between an odd looking house in North London and a 400 year old thatched cottage in Donegal.
2015: I sold my first collection of fairytale inspired drawings to legendary musician Stevie Nicks. ( I knowww!!!) These are now lovingly installed in LA, with the copies at the Daisy Lodge Cancer centre for Children in County Down, Northern Ireland.
2016: A particularly peachy commission saw me become the first woman to become an Artist in Residence of The Savoy in London. I produced ‘The Legend of Melba’ a huge tryptic illustrating the link between opera singer Nellie Melba, The Savoy, and their resulting lovechild: the Peach Melba.
2018: I felt compelled to draw a special pawtrait for a little boy who had lost his beloved Bear. The story behind this inspired me to write and illustrate my first book.
2020: ‘Bear Shaped’ was published in April of 2020, at the beginning of lockdown.
2021: Watch this space…