Helen Borton

Helen Borton 'Do You See What I see?' published in 1959. This beautiful book has bold mid-century style images, monoprinted in vivid colours with black over the top and is very geometric in its designs. In it Helen discusses lines, shapes, colours, and how they can vary, what they remind us of, and the moods they evoke.

“The entire series was done in a technique called monotype: a single print method in which I painted in oil on glass and took a transfer print. At the time, it was necessary to create a separate print for each colour—a rather grueling process! I was inspired by a children’s book done in woodcuts by a respected figure in fine art, Antonio Frasconi, his only children’s book, I believe. To get around the limitations of the four-color process—as opposed to full-color reproduction—I invented a method of overlapping and tinting colors so as to approximate or mimic a full palette.” Helen Borton 

Helen Borton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1930, she attended the Philadelphia Museum College of Art and started getting her children's books published in the late 1950's and 1960's winning much acclaim and many awards.
In the 1980's her focus shifted to radio where she became an acclaimed and award winning radio producer creating documentaries.

“My own documentary series, A Sense of Place, absorbed all my energies. I traveled the country interviewing people and discovering fascinating corners of life, then edited, scripted, narrated, and produced the programs which were distributed nationally and spanned three seasons—43 documentaries in all!” Helen Borton 

'Do You See What I See' was re-published by Flying Eye Books in 2016.