Community, Canal-Side Sketching, and New Projects
Hello hello, dearest sugar plums! Gahh, it has been a while, hasn’t it?
Fear not, I have been a busy bee in many areas of life, growing, learning, reflecting and, of course, illustrating. While the blog posts have been few and far between as of late, I have been tending to my writing practice elsewhere, in my personal journal and slowly on Substack, where I am cultivating a reflective and more intentional newsletter on a creative life. Join me there for a soothing cuppa and musings for the soul, dipped straight into your inbox every other week.
Today, I wanted to share some of the community meet-ups I’ve orbited this season.
Urban Sketching at Castlefield
After months of unheard-of sunshine in Manchester (seriously, we’ve never had anything like it), we held our summer Drawn In meetup on a rainy Thursday evening by the canals at Castlefield. We were joined by Matt Gibbons, a self-taught illustrator who made the leap from the non-profit sector to full-time creativity, and who specialises in watercolour, ink, and drawing on location. The evening began with composition fundamentals, where we were asked to capture a specific part of the landscape in just five lines. Matt explained that this forces you to skip the detail and focus on the important parts of a composition. As someone who felt a little out of habit with urban sketching, I was surprised by how such a simple exercise helped us all loosen up and pick out the highlights of a landscape. Matt celebrates a loose, gestural style over tight lines, which helped us feel less precious about our wonky lines and inaccurate perspectives (or was that just me?!). It’s all part of the exploration and creative play, after all!
We then moved into value studies by simplifying the scenes into four monochrome tones; from black to grey to white. This not only helped us understand where to place colour, but it’s also a great technique in general for creating depth in a piece. Intentional tonal placement can help direct the viewer’s eye right where you want it to land. After this masterclass in watercolour painting from Matt, we ended the wholesome evening at The Wharf, complete with cosy armchairs and festoon lights. A perfect farewell to summer.
Stepping into a New Role at Sketch and Cafe
In other news, I am happy to share that I have officially graduated to host of Sketch and Cafe! You may have read about this sweet group on here and over on my IG page in the past. I have been part of this community for a good three years now, and I met Jenny (the founder) at our very first Drawn In event back in October 2023. If you want a blast from the past, you can read about that event here. We were babies back then!
I remember the evening well. I was nervous, feeling sorry for myself fresh out of a relationship, and the night before had set the intention to find my tribe. That certainly came true. Years later, through Jenny, I have met so many incredible friends. I’ve grown alongside them, travelled to Bologna Children's Book Fair with them, journeyed The Artist’s Way with them, and celebrated many of them publishing their own children’s books. I’m so proud to know each and every one of them. At the centre of it all, Jenny has always been there.
I’m honoured that she has now entrusted her community to me and my friend Nathan. As she begins her new chapter in Hong Kong, we have gladly taken up the mantle. Nathan and I have been very intentional about keeping the core spirit of the meet-ups the same; creating purely for fun and supporting each other through welcoming community and friendship. I hope we’ll see you at one of our meet-ups very soon! They happen twice a month.
On the Drawing Board
On a more personal note, this season I am working closely with my agent on a book proposal plus exploring some new characters that emerged during a divine trip to Paris and since dedicating some intentional time to my newsletter again. I’m feeling all in all inspired, excited and balanced which, to have all three at once is a rarity believe you me!. I have worked through many heavy beliefs in my creative practice and personal life over the last year and a half, and I feel as the season shifts, I am at a place where I not only feel more confident, but more grounded and quite frankly a little less precious about it all! I have shared a little more about this on my newsletter, which you can read here.
Embracing the messiness from here on in! Thank you for reading, as always friend <3
C xo
Dancing in the Rain: A Tribute to Gene Kelly at Casina di Raffaello, Rome
Over the past three months, something very special has been unfolding in Rome.
From November 2025 to February 2026, Casina di Raffaello hosted the exhibition “Dancing in the Rain – Tribute to Gene Kelly”. Although I wasn’t able to visit the exhibition in person, I had the immense joy of seeing the book I illustrated come to life in a space dedicated to art, movement and imagination, right in the heart of Villa Borghese. This post shares a look back at what these months meant for the book, for the children who experienced it, and for everyone who stepped into Gene Kelly’s world.
The exhibition was inspired by Dancing in the Rain, written by Giulia Zucchini and illustrated by me, published by Edizioni Curci. The title pays homage to the iconic 1952 film Singin' in the Rain, directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, a film that forever changed the language of dance on screen. The book begins with an unexpected encounter between the protagonist Olmo, and Gene Kelly. From that meeting unfolds a joyful, imaginative journey through dance, cinema, theatre, music and art. Through an immersive installation featuring twelve large illustrated panels, the exhibition took visitors on a journey through Olmo’s discovery of the musical world.
A Tribute to a Revolutionary Artist
Gene Kelly transformed the movie musical by bringing everyday movement onto the stage and into film. He showed us that dance is a universal language, that belongs not only to professionals, but to everyone. He leapt into puddles, danced on tables and pianos, and moved through the world with playful experimentation. That spirit of freedom and curiosity is exactly what we hoped to capture in the book, and what the exhibition so beautifully extended into a physical experience.
As Giulia writes:
“I have always considered the encounter with art, and with any cultural object and artistic language, as an opportunity to explore, read and interpret the complexity of the world and its inhabitants, but also as a chance to discover oneself, uncovering something that was previously hidden.”
Beyond the Exhibition
Throughout its run, schools attended from Tuesday to Friday in two morning sessions, while Sundays were dedicated to families and adult visitors. The opening itself formed part of the 15th edition of Musei in Musica, linking the project to a wider cultural celebration across the city. The workshops were designed to be interdisciplinary, performative and inclusive, encouraging children not just to look at art, but to move through it.
Dancing Through the Pages
The youngest participants explored the exhibition alongside Gene Kelly and Olmo. Inspired by the famous “newspaper dance” choreography, they experimented with short body explorations before moving into the studio space to colour characters and meaningful objects from the book.
Lighting up Broadway
Children immersed themselves in the musical world and “turned on the stage lights” on a special illustrated spread inspired by Singin’ in the Rain. Through movement and making, they connected body, imagination and set design.
Gene Kelly: Song and Dance Man
Older children journeyed more deeply into Kelly’s artistic language. In this workshop, they created a paper character dedicated to the artist, a figure they could metaphorically bring “on stage,” like performers in a Broadway theatre. This workshop was about authorship, storytelling and stepping into creative identity.
Journeying into the World of Gene Kelly
This guided visit wove together the book’s narrative, Kelly’s biography and the artistic references hidden throughout the illustrations. Visitors engaged in a playful game of connections and correspondences, discovering how cinema, dance and visual art constantly inform one another.
Behind the Scenes and Beyond
Alongside the public programme, Giulia also led a professional training session for teachers, educators and cultural practitioners, using the book as a tool to explore non-stereotypical and inclusive approaches to dance and artistic language. With over twenty years of experience in museum education, she brought depth and care to the project.
Biggest thank you to all the staff at Casina di Raffaello, in particular Marco Falciano, and our publisher Edizioni Curci. Also to Patricia Ward Kelly, who supported the making of Dancing in the Rain every step of the way. And of course, to Giulia, for making the exhibition come alive!
You can check out the exhibition homepage here.
Take a look inside the book here.