All works by R. W. Alley

My parents saved everything, so I know that I began drawing sometime around age two.  I haven't paused since.  In fact, my drawings now and my drawings then bear a rather strong resemblance.  I have gotten slightly better at hands, but horses remain a problem.  For an only child, growing up in New York, Texas, South Carolina and finally for most of the time in Annapolis, Maryland, drawing was fine self-entertainment.  Then, as now, I have always enjoyed most making pictures that illustrate a story rather than hang on a wall.

 

Today I live in Barrington, Rhode Island with the lovely Zoë B. Alley, author, wife and mother of our two clever children, Cassandra and Max.

I make my pictures in a studio that has a rolling ladder, more books than I can count and many tubes of half-used, rock-hard paint.  For the last ten years one of my big projects has been to illustrate new and old stories of Paddington Bear.  I have also made pictures for over one hundred other books since I started doing all this right out of college in 1979.  I didn't go to art school, but received a BA in Art History from Haverford College and then spent four years as a staff artist at several greeting card companies.  Since then, I have spent my working time in my slippers trying to avoid illustrating stories with horses.