Jackie Morris

Jackie Morris is a British artist,author, and illustrator known for her dreamlike watercolours and poetic visual storytelling. Working primarily in ink and watercolour, her practice spans book illustration, fine art, and writing, with a signature style rooted in myth, nature, and a profound respect for the animal world. Her work evokes wonder and stillness, often merging the real and the fantastical. Based in a remote part of Pembrokeshire, Wales, she draws constant inspiration from the wild landscapes, light, and creatures that surround her.

Born in Birmingham in 1961 and raised in Evesham, Worcestershire, Jackie showed an early inclination toward both drawing and storytelling. She spent much of her childhood sketching animals and writing stories, two practices that would later merge into a successful career in book illustration and authorship. After leaving school, she studied at Hereford College of Arts before completing her formal education at the Bath Academy of Art. During this time, she began refining her skills in traditional illustration techniques while developing a strong visual language that leaned toward symbolism, emotion, and the natural world.

Upon graduation, Morris moved to London and began work as a freelance illustrator, producing artwork for editorial clients including The New Statesman, The Guardian, and Radio Times. Though technically challenging and commercially viable, this early work felt creatively limiting. Eventually, she turned her focus toward book illustration and began to establish herself within the world of children's literature. Her first self-authored and illustrated picture books revealed a distinctive style-gentle, detailed, and rich with narrative depth.

Morris's artwork is notable for its quiet lyricism and painterly detail. Working mostly in watercolour, with occasional use of gold leaf and pencil, she conjures dreamlike environments populated by hares, foxes, tigers, polar bears, owls, and mythical creatures. She often incorporates poetry and hand lettering into her compositions, blurring the boundaries between text and image. Themes of wildness, transformation, solitude, and the spiritual connection between humans and animals run throughout her work. She is also deeply influenced by folklore, Celtic mythology, and the rhythms of the natural world.

A major milestone in her career came with The Lost Words (2017), a collaborative project with writer Robert Macfarlane. The book responds to the removal of nature words such as "acorn" and "kingfisher" from a children's dictionary, and pairs Macfarlane's acrostic "spells" with Morris's luminous paintings. The book became a cultural phenomenon in the UK, inspiring live performances, educational programs, a touring exhibition, and even NHS and school initiatives to reconnect people-especially children-with nature. The follow-up title, The Lost Spells (2020), further cemented their creative partnership and Morris's reputation as one of the most significant visual storytellers of her generation.

Jackie Morris has written and illustrated over 40 books, including The Ice Bear, The Snow Leopard, Tell Me a Dragon, and East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Her work has been exhibited widely across the UK, including at Seven Fables in Dulverton and Oriel y Parc in St Davids. She has received multiple awards, including the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal (shared with Macfarlane) and the Tir na n-Og Prize for Welsh children's literature.

Her original paintings and prints are held in private and public collections, and she continues to work prolifically as both a painter and writer. Jackie lives and works in a small cottage near the sea in Pembrokeshire, where she shares her life with cats, dogs, and the wild coast that endlessly fuels her imagination.