a bit more about Kit

Well, hello there! 

I’m Kit Wren.  I’m a children’s book author and illustrator, and I've been in the business of painting and drawing for over 18 years. My favorite mediums for my work include a mixture of watercolors, gouache, pencil, and sometimes pen and ink. Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of doing a variety of illustration projects for clients including: 

*pacifiers for Evenflo via Avent

*a European line of illustrated diapers for P&G Pampers

*greeting cards for Papyrus

*authored and illustrated four picture books for G.P. Putnam and Sons, an    imprint of Penguin Random House,

*illustrated two picture books for Zondervon

I'm the lucky mom of my six best friends and I live in Southern California, sandwiched less than a hour's drive between the ocean, mountains, and desert. I enjoy exploring the bike trails of SoCal’s hillsides, early morning runs, impulse ice cream sprees, oversized sweatshirts, and baking chocolate chip cookies. I’m inspired by the work of Tasha Tudor, Ernest Shepherd, and Maurice Sendak; the Giant Jam Sandwich is my favorite children’s picture book.

A bit of the backstory for hawke and wren and me:

I created a children's illustration shop called Trafalgar's Square that I ran for over 15 years under my own name, Kit Chase.  This past summer, my computer crashed and corrupted all my printing files for the shop. Literally hundreds of illustrations and paintings were no longer printable. I was pretty overwhelmed at the thought of losing all my work, and it made me step back and think about where I'd like to go with my illustration career.  Ever since grade school, when I found out Mark Twain was the pen name for Samuel Clemens, I've been intrigued at the idea of having a pen name of my own.  Granted, at the time, if you asked me to come up with a short story, or even name one of my stuffed animals, I'd be sent into a spiral of mental anguish, creativity was not my strong point then. But I knew I wanted to become a writer for the luxury of having a pen name. Also, for a few years now, I've wanted to expand my work beyond that of children's art. So, between the computer crash and self evaluations, I've decided to close the door permanently on Trafalgar's Square, take up a pen name, and jump into this new territory with both wings spread. 

Thanks for coming along on this new journey with me!