Freya Blackwood is the illustrator of many acclaimed picture books. She was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and grew up in Orange NSW where she now lives with her daughter Ivy.
She has a degree in Visual Communications from UTS and worked in the film industry as a production assistant, runner and effects technician in Australia and also in New Zealand where she lived for some years.
Freya comes from an artistic family and grew up in a household interested in colours, shapes, textures and all things visual. While she was living in New Zealand she was commissioned to illustrate Two Summers, written by John Heffernan. This book went on to win the 2004 Crichton Award and was shortlisted for the CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award. Her subsequent books include Emily Rapunzel’s Hair, written by Cecily Matthews and shortlisted for the CBCA Early Childhood Book of the Year Award in 2006, Waltzing Matilda, The Man From Snowy River, Amy and Louis, written by Libby Gleeson and winner of the CBCA Early Childhood Book of the Year 2006, Harry and Hopper, written by Margaret Wild, and Ivy Loves to Give, where Freya also wrote the text. Her latest book is another collaboration with Libby Gleeson, Clancy and Millie and the Very Fine House.
