Bohemia Village Voice

Anna Blackledge of Little Frog.

Parents of young children might be interested in the work of Bohemia Road resident Anna Blackledge. Anna has a master’s degree in book illustration, but since moving to this area last summer she has begun to turn those talents to painting murals for children’s bedrooms. Her two-year-old daughter Lucy’s room is a vibrant example of her work – a scene of gently rolling hills populated by wild and farmyard animals.
 Anna’s parents are both originally from Hastings, but she grew up in Birmingham. ‘My grandmother still lives in this area, but it was only a couple of years ago that my parents moved back south to Eastbourne,’ she says. ‘I’ve got a family of my own now, so we moved down to be near them.’
  Anna recently obtained a New Entrepreneur Scholarship, which helped her with business start-up costs and entitled her to take a course at 1066 Enterprise on Bohemia Road. ‘I found the course very useful, particularly for book-keeping and the legal side of things,’ she says. ‘But giving birth to my son Davie in May has changed things a bit. As well as murals, I’ve started to do name plaques and other bedroom accessories, which I can make at home and then sell at craft fairs, as well as online once my website is fully built. My first craft fair is at the end of May at the Church in the Wood in Hollington, which is where my parents got married. Then I’ll be doing the baby fair at Summerfields Leisure Centre in July, followed by the Bohemia Village Fair in August. I’ll be doing a kids’ mural there, too, which the children can colour in themselves.’
 Anna says she would welcome the chance to decorate the premises of a child-related business in the local area. ‘I could do it at cost price.’ she says. ‘That way a lot of parents would get to see my work, and hopefully things would take off from there.’