AN AWARD-WINNING author and illustrator is at the heart of an exhibition opening next week.

Edinburgh-based Catherine Rayner has written more than 20 books for children, while also providing images for authors including Julia Donaldson and Michael Morpurgo.

Last year, she illustrated Tim Birkhead’s What It’s Like to Be a Bird, with the new exhibition at Waterston House, on the outskirts of Aberlady, focusing on the project.

She said: “I had drawn and painted birds previously for my own children’s books as well as for large-scale paintings, but never before had I been asked to consider the minutest details of their behaviour, to be checked by a world-renowned ornithologist!”

The exhibition at the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club’s headquarters is an opportunity to see the original paintings used in the book, while offering Catherine a chance to explore the subject on a different scale.

She added: “When I am working on a book, I often make large paintings of the subjects or characters in the story, because working exclusively within the size of a page can feel restrictive. In addition, knowing that this exhibition was in the diary opened the possibility that each page might exist outside of the book.”

The exhibition opens next Thursday (August 4) and runs until September 25.

Go to the-soc.org.uk for more information.