How Does Travel Inspire Your Art?

I haven’t traveled much, maybe because the idea of climbing into a tin can full of strangers and flying through the air at ridiculous speeds seems like a stupid thing for an intelligent artist like myself to do. A creative person that’s watched the whole back catalogue of air crash investigations trying to glean any critical information that might help me survive gravity. Maybe Id be better off learning from a fish that decided to fly.

My travel (although minimal) has a way of sneaking into my art when I least expect it. The experiences, the sights, the little moments of wonder—they lodge themselves in my mind, sometimes lying dormant for years before emerging in my work. One particular pre-kids trip with my wife, on our way to Petra in Jordan, perfectly illustrates this.

A Twilight Encounter with the Unexpected

We were staying the night in Eilat, Israel. It was hot as hell. The kind of heat that doesn’t relent, even after the sun dips below the horizon. But in that twilight, something magical happened.

We wandered the city and stumbled upon a café playing The Pixies—my favorite band. It was completely random, but as it turned out, they were playing a show in Jaffa, and the local radio station must have been promoting them. Sitting there, listening to Where Is My Mind? in the middle of the desert heat, felt surreal. It’s those little unexpected moments that make traveling so rewarding.

That night, we dined at a beachfront café teeming with stray cats. They were everywhere, lounging, watching, weaving through the tables like tiny, silent specters of the night. Enchanting, mischievous, utterly at home. (Not the cause of my wife’s food poisoning—that was the hotel, unfortunately.)

The Flying Fish That Etched Themselves in My Mind

After dinner, we waded into the Red Sea. The water was perfectly calm, a mirror reflecting the deepening twilight. And then—we saw them.

Flying fish.

For the first time in our lives, we watched as these surreal creatures skimmed across the water, gliding through the humid air before vanishing back into the sea. It was mesmerising. They were unlike anything I had seen before, and I was utterly fascinated.

I didn’t know it at the time, but that moment had already carved its way into my artistic subconscious. Years later, when I started illustrating Uncommon Animals of the Alphabet, the flying fish was right there, waiting for its turn. That trip happened in 2014, long before I even contemplated making a kids’ book, yet that fleeting moment in the Red Sea had already imprinted itself onto my creative journey.

Why Travel Fuels Creativity

Travel forces you to see the world differently. It disrupts routine, places you in unfamiliar settings, and fills your mind with strange, wonderful experiences. The stray cats of Eilat, the random Pixies café, the Red Sea’s flying fish—none of these things were planned, but they became vivid memories that later surfaced in my work.

Sometimes, inspiration isn’t about actively searching for ideas. It’s about being present, absorbing the world around you, and allowing those moments to take root. Years later, when you’re sitting at your desk, sketching, writing, or dreaming up something new, you might find that a piece of a long-forgotten journey suddenly emerges, ready to be transformed into art.

That’s the magic of travel. It leaves its mark on you in ways you don’t even realise—until, one day, you find yourself illustrating a flying fish.