About the Author Pauline Geran
Mother to David and Peter and now with four grandchildren Pauline has been happily married to John for more than 37 years. Pauline, who has been very successful in her career in the IT Industry for more than 28 of those years, would in her early teens write stories and poems. Over the years she has occasionally returned to that love of capturing her imagination in words. When Pauline and her husband, John, decided to move to the beautiful Island of Portland in Dorset, it was to work less and change their lifestyle. Little did they know just how much of a change it would be.
At the back of their house are fields with horses and ponies living in them, specifically two ponies in the field attached to the back garden. Pauline has always had a love of horses and these two ponies inspired Pauline’s imagination yet again. This time she has captured a set of stories about the ponies’ life in the field and the antics that they get up to. Add a few additional animal friends and the adventures of Flossy and Pickles took on a momentum that has led to publishing and this web site.
The imagination flood gates have now been opened and a number of additional projects are planned once the Flossy and Pickles stories are complete. An exciting time, a new career and most important ‘street cred’ with the granddaughters!
At the start of this project Pauline tried to create the illustrations for her stories but soon realised that a true artist was required. By sheer luck a family friend put her in touch with Rikey Austin. Rikey liked the stories and so this exciting collaboration was born. Rikey is an exceptional artist with the rare capacity to empathise with the characters instantly and portray them exactly as Pauline envisaged them.
About the Illustrator Rikey Austin
Rikey Austin’s love of painting started when she would sit with her children and paint them pictures of patients at her teddy bear hospital. Her children are almost all grown up now, and as well as illustrating her own books, she loves to bring other author’s stories to life. Rikey lives in Lyme Regis, Dorset with her family and the teddy bears!
Rikey has a number of significant artistic commisons to her credit including designing teddy bears for a famous store.
Rikey is very active in the support of Cancer Research and has helped to raise significant funds. A bright personality, Rikey is a pleasure to be with and laugh with.
Rikey is signing the Flossy and Pickles posters at her gallery in Lyme Regis. The Alice's Bear shop and gallery is full to the brim with teddy bears and other furry things!
Pauline is eager to capture some of the stories that are filling her head and has a number of parallel projects underway. One of them is based on her love of the magnificent Shire and Clydesdale horses and a poignant poem called Horses by Edwin Muir. Shelley was created and this time Pauline has worked with an exciting illustrator called Gillian Beech who works in a mix of traditional art and computer generated images.
About the Illustrator Gillian Beech
"Inspired by all things creative I have been passionate about art of all mediums all my life. My commissioned work entails a variety of mediums and styles dependant on client request, which offers me new challenges and the opportunity to express fresh ideas. With thousands of years of art history offering endless inspiration, and extensive contemporary art introducing new methods, there are a multitude of techniques from which to learn and develop these ideas. Since having a family and being surrounded by children’s books and their belongings, I have been drawn to illustration in the form of product design and book illustration. Books offer an immense library of stimulation and education for children and the art is inadvertently valued for its emotional impact when viewed by a child, which intensifies the work of the author. The ability to work in watercolours, acrylics, oils, pastels, pencils, photography, digital medium and so many more techniques allows me to express these emotions in a variety of ways. In a modern world where visuals change rapidly to meet new trends, and children are flooded with new products and temptations, I aim to provide images to connect visual memories of a time in their life where they did slow down and become absorbed by a story, or something precious to them. That special memory that belongs entirely to them. "