I have just bought a copy of 'The New Faber Book of Children's Verse' published 25 years ago in 2001, edited by Matthew Sweeney and illustrated by Sara Fanelli, whom I have long admired. It has the delicious madness of Edward Lear's illustrated limericks with Sara's illustrations in pen and ink scattered through the text.
I have just found out that Saturday the 21st March was 'international day of the forest' and though this is not a forest, I claim this circle of oak as my forest, I laid my fathers ashes there today, and one day my ashes will join his and some of my other loves. There has to be hope, and releasing the ashes in the soil at the roots of an oak for me meant the start of reincarnation and new beginnings.
Illustrations by Sibylle von Olfers (1881–1916) for Etwas von den Wurzelkindern "When the root children wake up" (1906).
Sibylle lived a short but very productive life dying at just 34 years old from a lung infection. Sibylle was born Maria Regina Angela Hedwig Sibylla von Olfers in the Castle of Metgethen near Königsberg, Prussia, one of five children to an aristocratic family. Her childhood was quite idilic she was encouraged in her creativity, tutored and closely supported by her loving family. Sibylle read extensively, the turn of the century across Europe was one of industrialisation and turbulence, but it was met with contemporary artistic movements that emphasised and celebrated organic form, decorative motifs, and harmony between art and nature. At age 25, she joined an order of nuns called the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth, and took the name Sister Maria Aloysia. She taught art in a Catholic primary school, and wrote, blending fine art with a love of the natural world to create the illustration in her children's books.
Helen Wilson's painted watercolour tin portraits furnished with tiny objects and treasure are so magical. Helen originally from Paisley has an exhibition until the 28th March at the Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh.
“The work invites us to see, hear and feel our home, our city as an interconnected web of species and cultures, to learn and remember the names and sing those under threat into continued existence.” Es Devlin
These images are from Es Devlin's 2022 installation at the The Modern called, 'Come Home Again'. I love the way that Es in yellow, looks like part of the monumental drawing scape she created of the 243 endangered species on London's priority conservation list.
Brothers Grimm "The Bremen Town Musicians" retold by B. Zakhoder, illustrated by Mikhail Maiofis,(1939- ) Published Moscow, "Malysh". 1982.
I am currently back in the habit of piling stacks of books around me, as my shelves are full.
This version of 'The Bremen Town Musicians', is one of my new acquisitions that has alerted me to the work of Russian artist Mikhail Maiofis. Mikhail studied illustration at the Repin institute in Leningrad under M. Taranov and graduated in 1963. He designed children's books for several publishing houses such as Malysh and Detskaia Literatura, he now lives in LA.
