A King . . . Midas

Inspired by Manon Gauthier's response to the theme King on Illustration Friday I set myself the task of a Midas, I want him to have silver tears and I would like to work with this story more. 

Annemette Lichtenberg II

Diving into the Edinburgh festival today, very briefly. This work by Danish artist Annemette Lichtenberg seems to fit how I am feeling too well. 
I am running out of air . . . two days of holiday to go and far too many things that I want to achieve or do. Time to breath, going to see some plays at Summerhall and have some fun.

Jana Nachlingerová

I am in the mood for some circus colour and emotion, it is dark and wet and windy and I want to escape, to climb into these collaged pictures by Jana Nachlingerová and enjoy the lights, the fun and the spectacle. 

Cristina Sitja Rubio

Venezuelan illustrator and ceramicist Cristina Sitja Rubio divides her time between Berlin and Barcelona. Cristina has a very loose style mixing scale and style on a surreal plane without perspective allowing her subjects to almost float on the paper and move freely to do what ever her imagination wants them to in the pictorial plane.

Tetsuhiro Wakabayashi VII

We have journeyed home, with a bag of walnuts and a service tree to plant. 
This illustration of a dark forest and strange creatures in a walnut shell style boat by Tetsuhiro Wakabayashi is very like today, it is dark with rain and surreal to be home after being in so many different locations in the past few weeks.

Finishing the map

Traveling home today and Freya is finishing off the map, inspired by The Wizard of Oz illustrated by Sara Ogilvie.

100 Days of Nature

We are still away from home and I have been involved, through Facebook and BBC Springwatch, in a photography project called 100 Days of Nature. For me this simply means sharing what I do more, because I am looking and watching nature all of the time.
I tend to be working a day behind. I am really enjoying the excuse to focus on this element of my life and work more. Though I worry about those 12 hour days when I am back at work and denied these essential pleasures.

Roald Dahl

A chair and a table of treasure, relics from the work room of Roald Dahl. Imbued with memories and potent with the man who used and worked with these objects at hand. I am pleased to have seen these objects from his daily life and see the  other hints and inspiration of Roald Dahl in the beautiful village of Great Missenden.

The House of Illustration

I am blogging on the run at the moment.
I never find this works out very well, so please excuse any problems with text or photographs, I will fine tune when I return home.
Freya and I are on a pilgrimage, celebrating the great combination of Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake.
Yesterday we went to The House of Illustration in London to see an exhibition of Quentin Blake's work, which was of course wonderful, but all too small (could spend days looking at his work and the tiny adjustments made with paper grafts).
Today we are visiting the Roald Dahl Museum at Great Missenden and having seen glimpses of it last night, we both can't wait.

Sara Ogilvie II

I recently invested In Sara Ogilvie's illustrated version of The Wizard of Oz by the Folio Society which is out of print. I like the unique colour scheme and having read the story I love Sara's interpretation of it.
It reminds me of the Moomins by Tove Jansen.

Lisbeth Zwerger

Lisbeth Zwerger's drawings are so structurally stunning, add this to her surreal imagination and you have a true genius of illustration, which is why she is one of the most honored illustrators alive today. 
These works are from The Wizard of OZ by L.Frank Baum published in 1996 by North South Books. It constantly frustrates me that books like this go out of print and then are virtually impossible to get. You would think in this day and age it would be easier to print to demand or something, to make these classics more easily accessible.

Jeon, Hee-Jeong

This field of poppies by Korean Illustrator Hee-Jeong Jeong is part of a selection of works on The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. 
I have never read this book and having come across many new interpretations lately I would like to read it and attempt my own rendition of the magic, sleepy poppy field.

Mary Newcomb IV

More of Mary Newcomb's observations; Top: Orangetip butterfly about to land, Bottom: 'Orangetips swaying on grass'. 

"I am told of a cloud of orangetip butterflies . . . that the plant was thought to have orange flowers and became dull, blue grey thistle like, when the orange cloud dispersed, I'd like to have seen it." Mary Newcomb 

I hear a Hissssssssing in the grass ahead

This is a sketch from the notebooks of one of my favorite artists Mary Newcomb. 
I have chosen this work, because it perfectly captures where I am right now in that, in France I was 'honored' to see two snakes in the space of two days, a ladder back and a green grass snake both about a meter and a half long. I say honoured because I was deep in the forest, their environment and I was so happy to see them there, as I am deeply concerned about human encroachment on wildlife and wild spaces. 
I have not seen a snake in the wild for over 10 years (an adder in Norfolk) and though both were scary encounters, it was exhilarating to see them. Once they had confronted me they moved away very quickly, I was amazed at the speed especially of the ladder back.

Mary Newcomb I always associate with Norfolk which is where my parents live and where I lived in my teenage years absorbed with the animals of home and the environment. 
I am going home for a few days.