Winifred Wanders the World

In her debut children’s publication, Australian artist Hilary Herrmann brings magic to the page. Her whimsical and gentle oil paintings, coupled with Frieda Herrmann’s original storytelling, set imaginations alight and create a rich and complex world.

As Winifred embarks on an adventure to take Shelley home, Winifred experiences fear and anxiety. Step by step they undertake their journey and Winifred’s dread unravels. Character and reader alike discover an ability to conquer fear and learn how friendships are deepened through adversity. The story is a shared adventure – over waves in a hand-built boat, through unknown lands and stormy seas, and back to the safety of home.

Winifred Wanders the World offers a world of beauty, kindness and poetry to its young and older readers alike. It presents to children a world in which anxiety can be overcome, where dark and stormy nights end in perfect mornings and where friendship and love can sustain.

For adults, Winifred functions as an art book. Hilary Herrmann’s stunning illustrations are reproduced in high definition. This book is a beautiful piece of ephemera for fans of the artist. Frieda Herrmann’s words adorn the images with slices of poetry.

The rhythm and flow of the language coupled with the detailed images make this a perfect book for reading aloud to young children. With some bigger words, the text introduces new vocabulary to children, while context from both surrounding text and images allows for easy understanding.

Frieda Herrmann has a Master of Creative Writing, Publishing and Editing. She loves books and words and gardens and birds, and most of all her mum’s dog, Shelley.

Australian artist, Hilary Herrmann, has been painting about the ‘every day’ for over two decades.

She finds inspiration from the surroundings of her rural property which is nestled within replanted rainforest, where five chooks and a dog called Shelley claim dominion. Her inspiration comes from anything and everything that surrounds her: readings, dreams, domestic intimacies, fears and 3am insomniac musings.

All of this is sifted through, distilled, transmuted, until finally the artwork transcends the personal and offers strange, delicate, whimsical and often darkly intimate mythologies.

Australian artist, Hilary Herrmann, has been painting about the ‘every day’ for over two decades.

She finds inspiration from the surroundings of her rural property which is nestled within replanted rainforest, where five chooks and a dog called Shelley claim dominion. Her inspiration comes from anything and everything that surrounds her: readings, dreams, domestic intimacies, fears and 3am insomniac musings.

All of this is sifted through, distilled, transmuted, until finally the artwork transcends the personal and offers strange, delicate, whimsical and often darkly intimate mythologies.