Kilmeny Niland

Illustrator

Daughter of Ruth Park and D'Arcy Niland, Kilmeny was born in New Zealand but educated in Sydney and studied art at the Julian Ashton Art School there before taking off to London with sister Deborah, both working as freelance artists. This led to a collaboration that produced The Little Goat in 1971 when the twins were in their very early twenties. Then followed publications that included two picture stories written by their mother; illustrated novels such as Elizabeth Wilton's Riverview Kids; two of Jean Chapman's collection of tales, songs, verses and things for young children to make and do as well as Birds on a Bough (1975) which exemplifies the Niland sense of humour - frivolous-looking birds crowding the bough until it breaks. It exemplified the sisters' sense of the ridiculous, their keen eye for caricature and clever but never hurtful burlesque.