Beni Montresor III

 "When I was a little child, I spent hours and hours looking enchantedly at walls covered with medieval and renaissance frescoes, telling stories about heros and their adventures, saints and their miracles. All the churches and palaces in Italy are covered with these tales, which were created for people who didn't know how to read, but wanted to learn. Those walls were my picture books_ and I spent hours living wiith them, intregues by everything I saw happen in them. I made this book thinking of those walls of my childhod. It is the memory of a little boy who didn't yet know how to read, and his emotions upon seeing so many mysterious images." Beni Montresor writing about this book; I saw a ship a sailing.

 

'I Saw a Ship a Sailing' by Beni Montresor, published in 1967, a surreal, lurid masterpiece illustrating nursery rhymes known by us all, but planting images and seeds of imagination.

Gaynor Chapman IV

'The Wise Man on the Mountain', by Dillon, Eilis (1909), illustrated by Gaynor Chapman published in 1969. This is a version of what I know as 'a squash and a squeeze', where someone is not happy with their little house and a 'wise' person gets them to fill it usually with their animals and then have the relief of taking them out again. I assume that this is an ancient tale but have no idea of it's origin. In this version Simon and Katie have ten children and are finding life very hard and Simon seeks advice from a wise man who lives at the top of the mountain. 

Gaynor Chapman's illustrations are as ever wonderfully proportioned and have a solidity in this, the colour sings from the pages and the design is gorgeous.  

I really like the creasy effect that is on the larger areas of colour and the clothing.

Gaynor Chapman III

Really pleased to have found some more work by Gaynor Chapman. This is 'The luck child' based on a story of the Brothers Grimm by Gaynor, published in 1968 by Atheneum. 

I adore the dynamic, solid, illustration with it's powerful use of colour. Particularly the flowing river of cobalt ink and the coronation parade.

   

Blair Lent III

 

An amazing book by Blair Lent, where a whaler, stranded on a remote island is rescued and goes on an incredible adventure back home to Nantucket. John Tabor was published in 1966.

Blair's illustrations are made in a similar print technique to his book 'Pistachio, I particularly love the pale details of the underwater city above.

New England sea ports and sea lore were a fascination for Blair Lent. His Great-Grandfather was a Cape Cod sailing master, captain of a clipper ship. It was on Nantucket that Blair learned the legend of John Tabor.