THE new exhibition in the Argyle Gallery at Julia Street Creative Space features among other things, children’s book illustrations – and there could hardly be a more appropriate work of art to greet viewers as they walk in.

Children’s Illustrations, Circus Time and Fantasy is the name of the exhibition which runs to October 5, and it features the usual diverse range of exhibits.

Apart from paintings by Portland Artists’ Society members, there is also toys made by fibre group member Joy Hamblin.

And at the entry is an oil by internationally renowned children’s book illustrator and Portland resident Roger Haldane.

It is the latest in the many books Mr Haldane has illustrated over his career, but this one, Rakali (named after the water rats that are the main characters of the book), has a family touch.

“My father and his brothers and sisters were brought up in Williamstown where they first cut their teeth on boating,” he said.

The story of the water rats follows that tale, noticing lots of bottles in the Yarra River and doing something about it using a home-made raft to pick up the litter.

They then get given an old dinghy by a tug master who gets them out of the way of a cargo ship and they use that on their adventures.

Mr Haldane said the book would be published via Amazon as an e-book, but that company could also print off hard copies.

He is busy working on his next book too – this one is about  a water rat who lives in a little cottage on the Isle of Bags (in the Glenelg River at Nelson) and who is an artist running out of colours.

So he goes over to the Blue Lake in Mount Gambier and “nets” the primary colours red and yellow out of the lake until only blue is left.

“All the other creatures around want a bit of paint for doing their things too,” Mr Haldane said.

Mr Haldane has been illustrating books since the 1960s, including Blue Fin for Colin Thiele, and Magpie Island which won him the 1977 Kinder book prize in Austria for best illustrated children’s book (in Australia it also won the 1975 Visual Arts Board award for illustration and was commended that year in the Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year award).