Celebrating Somerset's Creative & Cultural Practitioners - Jill Newton

posted 16 Jan 2026

After a fantastic autumn illustration workshop hosted by Jill, we wanted to highlight Jill’s career and work in our monthly blog. When she hosted her workshop last year, she was great at inspiring the participants, me included, in building our creative narratives and exploring our ideas on paper.

 This month marks the launch of Jill latest Illustrated book ‘Sami’s Song’ It is a story of displacement and of how music has the power to bring all souls together. Something much needed in today’s world.

After the workshop I sat down with her to learn more about her background. Jill was born in Newcastle, brought up in Lincoln, studied in Cambridge then moved to London to carve out a career making connections with publishers and art directors, along with enjoying all the other experiences London offers.

She now lives in West Somerset with her husband. Her studio is up in an attic. An attic full of books, paints, brushes, things to stick, things to print and generally things to experiment out new ideas to create new characters. 

“I have worked on many wide and varied projects, from editorial pieces for the Financial Times to designing soft toys for Jelly Cat. My passion is for children’s books, and I have made a career illustrating over 150 books, as well as have over 20 of my own stories published worldwide.”

Growing up Jill was drawing pretty much as soon as she could “get my little paws on a crayon”. 

From a very early age she connected to the Dr. Seuss books her parents bought, read and left her to read. 

“Cutting out illustrations putting them in clip frames made me realise that illustration, not fine art, was the route that I wanted to follow. There was no plan B!”

Jill has always felt that art should be accessible to everybody, determined on taste, not wealth. After school she studied a foundation course in her hometown of Lincoln where she was advised to go on apply for combined graphic design and illustration. 

“As I was not capable of drawing a straight line even with a ruler (these were the pre-computer days of the distant past) and all I wanted to do was to draw I applied to Cambridge Art College which was the only pure illustration course at the time.”

She was accepted and her journey began!

 During the workshop at Westland we had the opportunity to see some of the artwork from Jill’s latest publication. It is a world of colours and themes that reflect the international storyline.

Sami’s Song, is the picture book Jill has written and illustrated, it’s due to be published at the end of January by Mantra Lingua, publishers of dual language books.

“This is a project that both myself and my publisher are passionate about, taking it to schools attended by unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) for their opinion on the story, which was positive and very instructive.”

The description below gives you a feel for this beautiful new story.

This is a story about a cat, Sami. Every night Sami sings by the lake. When he sings everyone dances. The air is full of joy.

One evening the air becomes full of fear. Scared, Sami runs away. He becomes separated from his beloved sister.

 Tired and lost he rests at the top of a mountain where a tiny tune enters his ear.

Sami chases the music. It takes him to a town, a town he doesn’t understand and where no-one understands him. Will he ever find his song, will he ever belong?

 

“I am also working on the follow up to ‘Around the World on 80 Horses’ (Which has just been translated into French), Around the World with 80 Mythical Beasts. You cannot imagine how much fun I am researching this book and cannot wait to begin creating the artwork.”

Alongside her professional work Jill loves holding workshops. For her it’s seeing participants starting with a blank piece of paper and a pencil and ending with an incredible creation of their own imagination is magical.

“Whether the group is a reception class, where I read and encourage them to envisage animals doing things when the humans aren’t watching, or guiding a group to create their own character and seeing them fly with their thoughts is truly amazing.”

“I feel that this freedom of imagination is incredibly important. When a child is allowed such freedom they can begin to imagine the feelings of others. Those who are in trouble, those who are worse off, those who are different. Imagination and empathy hold hands.”

 

At Westlands we have an ongoing environmental policy and gather regularly to discuss what we can do as a business to improve our environmental footprint.

I asked Jill how sustainable her work is “Pretty sustainable. As I work form home and can send images electronically I don’t need to travel too often, though I do find it important to meet up with my publishers to have face-to-face creative meetings every now and again.

My artwork is produced manually using pencils, paper and paint and are all recyclable. Unless the bits of paper have pictures on them then they live in my plan chest, my portfolio or in frames hung on the wall.”

Finally, I asked what advice she gives to other artists, she offered a few important words of wisdom;

 “Draw, Draw. Draw everything. Draw what is going on outside your window. Draw the window frame. Draw the reflections. Draw yourself in the refection. Draw every day.”

“The challenge with being an illustrator is that you may receive a commission to do anything. I, personally love that. Every job is different, as every client is different. If you take on a job you must do the best you can do, whether it pays or not. If the latter, make it even better so it’s a great portfolio piece.”

“Don’t (unless you have a watertight contract) work for individuals. If you do, don’t go into a royalty-based agreement. Just get paid and make sure that you only allow first rights usage for your art.”

“Check contracts (especially publishing and film rights), unless they state that any issues will be dealt with in a court of law in the U.K. all clause detailed are worthless.”
 
You can see more of Jill’s work on her website: jillnewton.co.uk or her instagram page: jill.newton.illustration. You can also find her books in most libraries.

Should you be in Watchet, why not pop into Jill’s shop/ gallery and, along with browsing through the cards, prints and paintings, have a ride on the automated elephant and the vintage rocking horses!