Gavin Bishop

Gavin Bishop (Ngāti Pūkeko, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Mahuta, Tainui) was born in Invercargill in 1946. Bishop worked as a high school art teacher for 30 years, before writing and illustrating children's books full-time.

He received a Diploma (Honours) in Painting from the Canterbury School of Fine Arts in 1967, and a Secondary Teachers Diploma with Honours in 1968. 

Bishop is a leading children’s writer who has developed an international reputation as an author and artist. Alongside his career as a teacher and lecturer he has published 70 books, which have been translated into 12 languages and has won numerous awards. He has contributed to 30 educational readers in New Zealand and received the Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit Award for services to Children's Literature (2013).

He has collaborated with authors including Margaret Mahy, Joy Cowley and Katarina Mataira. His distinctive ink and watercolour illustrations are a feature of stories that have always captured the imaginations of children. Over the course of his career, Bishop became increasingly focussed on the oral and social histories of Aotearoa New Zealand.

His illustrations here are from the 1982 ‘School Journal’ titled ‘Horrakapotchkin!’ in the story by Fran Hunia called ‘The Enormous Turnip’. Of these works, Bishop says:

 “They date around the time of ‘Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant’ and the style is very similar to one I used in that book. I was very influenced by British illustration at the time. There is a strong emphasis on drawing with colour washed in later. I work a bit more loosely now and let the colour play a bigger part in my pictures."