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Artist and illustrator Jane Pinkney is famous for her mice pictures and many of them are inspired by her North Yorkshire home. Sharon Dale reports.
Jane Pinkney lives in a quintessential country cottage with a rabbit warren of rooms, low ceilings and roaring real fires.
It's full of furniture, interesting knick-knacks and clocks and has a lovely lived-in feel that makes you want to kick off your shoes ?and toast your toes by the kitchen range.
It is an uncontrived success and to ?those who know Jane's work, it looks ?and feels familiar.
Inspiration for her watercolours and drawings comes from a combination of memory, imagination and day-to-day observation and so elements of her home often creep into her pictures.
"Both my husband John and I love long case clocks and they have definitely featured," says Jane, who adds that she is not a minimalist. "There is only one room that is devoid of clutter and that's the kitchen where I work. I find having too much stuff is distracting when I am drawing."
The long-scrubbed pine table is where she makes her famous mice pictures. She pings awake at six in the morning and is straight downstairs to pick up a pencil. She draws for about six hours each day, though her routine has been altered by a stint as artist-in-residence at nearby Nunnington Hall, which is holding a second exhibition of her work.
While at the hall, she draws on her...