Children's / imaginative Illustrations: November 2010

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The corrs and the chieftains

Jean de Brunhoff - Babar at Home

Babar helped launch picture books as a genre. His green suit is the most chic in literature (de Brunhoff was French and knew about clothes). But Babar is also a model father (no slapping from him). He is tenderly hands-on – or trunk-on – with his triplets – Pom, Flora and Alexander – and plays games with them in the nursery. He is the most human of elephants, concluding to his wife after a trying day which included saving Pom from a hungry crocodile: “Truly, it is not easy to bring up children… but aren’t they worth it!”

Maurice Sendak - The Sign on Rosie’s Door

Maurice Sendak (1960)

Sendak is another illustrator who has created a world – but his celebrated Where the Wild Things Are does not eclipse The Sign on Rosie’s Door, an early work of exceptional charm. Like most of Sendak’s books, it explores the way a child moves between fantasy and reality. Rosie instructs friends to address her as “Alinda, the lovely lady singer” but soon discovers the rigours of a performer’s life. Even Rosie’s back view – hopeful and dressed up to the nines, the dress slipping slightly off one shoulder – tells all

Dr Seuss - The Cat in the Hat

Dr Seuss is the most successful American picture book illustrator of all time. His motto “fun is good” is worth remembering. But the cat in the hat is a complicated character. He enters with his eyes peculiarly closed. His hat bends as if it were alive. There is something sinister beneath the bonhomie – and the RSPCA should be on to him for the way he treats that fish. And as to Thing One and Thing Two, they may help with the housework but they are a creepy duo. The power of the book is that it exists on the edge of children’s panic. Extraordinary to discover it was originally written as a school reader, a “controlled vocabulary book”

Monday, November 29, 2010

The Corrs - Only When I Sleep

Quentin Blake - All Join In

Lauren Child - The Princess and the Pea

Lauren Child, captured by Polly Borland (2005)

This collaboration between photographer Polly Borland and illustrator Lauren Child was a labour of love – and it shows. Child has created miniature settings out of cornflake packets with fastidious care and furnished them with tiny, handmade antiques and diminutive chandeliers. It is a book that has a doll’s house appeal. And, even if she is not to your taste, Child’s princess with her oval face and slanting eyes is arresting. A millefeuille of mattresses forms the frontispiece – with a pea teasingly visible. A romantic hybrid and a dashing retelling of an old tale

The Lonely Doll

Dare Wright (1957)

This beautiful book by the New York photographer was a bestseller when I was a child. The black-and-white photographs have glamour, mystery and melancholy. Edith, a doll, is expectantly dressed: she has a glossy ponytail, a lace petticoat and adorable black shoes. But she is on her own, praying for company. The pigeons she feeds give her no crumbs of comfort. Then two bears stroll into her life… The book has recently been republished, which is amazing, if only because Mr Bear, I am sorry to report, believes in smacking his charges

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Martin & Eliza Carthy - The Wife of Usher's Well 2001

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbdTHqlZMZI&feature=related

sorry I can't embed it
but really good indeed

Arthur Rackham - A meeting with Puck

oil on canvasboard
13.9 x 19.8 in. / 35.2 x 50.4 cm.
1923 -
Signed

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis - Fortress.Fairy-Tale (Tvirtove.Pasaka

Children's shrine to the fairies, National Trust ,Hamble

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Apologies

Apologies I was rushed to Hospital rather unexpectedly and only just got released but need to recuperate for a few days. Back as soon as I can and will start to answer emails etc.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Imogen Heap - Speeding Cars

Helen Oxenbury - Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes #4

Helen Oxenbury - Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes #3

Patricia Beeman Ardley - Fairy Lessons

Kestutis Kasparavicius - Thumbelina 15, 2005

http://www.bridgemanartondemand.com/art/161393/Thumbelina_15_2005

Kestutis Kasparavicius was born in 1954 at Aukstadvaris, Lithuania. Between 1962-1972 he studied at M.K. Ciurlionis Art School and between 1972-1981 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vilnius in the graphic design class. Since 1984 he has been working as a children's book illustrator and has completed 35 books which have been published worldwide.

In 1993 he was honoured as illustrator of the year by Bologna Children's Book Fair. He was also awarded the Golden Pen of Belgrade in 1990 and the Il Diploma Premi International Catalonia d'Illustracio, Barcelona in 1994.