Matt Ottley

Matt Ottley is an internationally acclaimed and multiple award-winning artist, author and composer, with more than forty picture books to his name. Matt has recently been chosen as the Australian nominee (illustrator) for the Hans Christian Andersen Award 2024, the highest international distinction given to the creators of children’s books, awarded every second year to an author and an illustrator whose complete works have made an important, lasting contribution to children's literature.

As a composer, and an Endorsed Yamaha musician, Matt has written scores for many of his picture books as part of an initiative called ‘The Sound of Picture Books™’. These have been performed by orchestras and musicians across Australia and internationally. Music and image have always been inseparable for Matt and he is quoted as being 'happiest when I’m either immersed in the world of sound or of colour and light, and often they’re the same.’