Charlotte Philtjens is an illustator who lives in the small northern community of Telegraph Creek, BC, Canada. She enjoys creating her art surrounded by her big family. When she is not in her art studio, you will find Charlotte in nature, gardening with her kids, building things with her husband or enjoying a spooky book. She is originally from Belgium, where she studied art at Haute Ecole St Luc de Liege.

 

She always was an illustrator, really. Charlotte wrote and illustrated her first book when she was six years old for the greatest pleasure of her parents who kept the precious artifact to this day. It wasn’t meant to be published of course but after that, she never stopped drawing, and later on, painting. She designed several comic books that depicted herself and her horse on all kinds of funny adventures ; she never got enough of reading comics either.

 

When Charlotte moved to Canada in 2010, she travelled all over the country but mostly stayed and enjoyed northern communities where she learned the bush life and survival skills you can only experience and live in Canada. Alongside poeple she met ‘up there’, Charlotte learned to fish, hunt, trap and somewhat dog sleigh. She had always been an outdoorsy person so this lifestyle resonated with her very very much.

From there, her art had a new purpose, a new direction. She never had to wait for inspiration anymore, it was all around her…

 

Charlotte’s art is directly inspired by her everyday life of homesteading, mothering and living an altogether different lifestyle. It has been leading to more magical worlds as her art evolved a lot in the past few years partially because she worked on so many different children’s books. Some made it out in the world, some never will but the inspiration from those stories is very much alive in her heart.

 

Her illustrations and stories inspire her own children with adventures and wonder. She hopes you will see her art trough your inner child’s eyes and enjoy it as much as she does.