~Aubrey Beardsley~

.
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley was born August 21 1872
and died March 16 1898 
He was an influential English artist, illustrator,
and author. He was born in Brighton, England.
~
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley werd geboren op
21 augustus 1872 in Brighton, Engeland
en is overleden op 16 maart 1898 in Menton, Frankrijk.
Hij was een Engels tekenaar, illustrator en schrijver, 
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley was een invloedrijk kunstenaar
wiens werk wordt gerekend tot de stroming van de
Art Nouveau en het symbolisme. Beardsley is vooral
beroemd geworden door zijn illustraties van epossen,
sages en bijbelse verhalen als Salomé, die hij heel
consequent in zwart-wit met hier en daar een steunkleur,
overwegend lineair op het papier zet.
.
 
.
Beardsley was aligned with the Yellow Book coterie
of artists and writers, and produced many illustrations
for the magazine. He was also closely aligned with
Aestheticism, the British counterpart
to Decadence and Symbolism.
..
Most of his images are done in ink, and feature large
dark areas contrasted with large blank ones,
and areas of fine detail contrasted with areas
with none at all. Aubrey Beardsley was the
most controversial artist of the Art Nouveau era,
renowned for his dark and perverse images and
the grotesque erotica, which themes he explored
in his later work. His most famous erotic illustrations
were on themes of history and mythology, including
his illustrations for Lysistrata and Salomé.
.
.
Beardsley heeft tijdens zijn korte carrière
van ruim 6 jaar wel honderden zwart-witillustraties
in de art-nouveaustijl weten te produceren.
Zijn werk gaf de decadentie van het fin de siècle weer
wat er toe leidde dat hij al op jonge leeftijd berucht was.
Kenmerkend voor het werk van Beardsley zijn de
forse, simpele compositie met zwierige lijnen,
en de sterke contrasten tussen licht en schaduw,
die laten zien hoe ook het werk van deze kunstenaar
is beïnvloed door de destijds sterk verbreide
Japanse kleurenhoutsnede.
.. 
Beardsley was a close friend of Oscar Wilde and
illustrated his play Salomé in 1893 for its French
release; it was released in English the following year.
He also produced extensive illustrations for books
and magazines (e.g. for a deluxe edition of
Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur) and
worked for magazines like The Savoy and The Studio.
Beardsley also wrote Under the Hill, an unfinished
erotic tale based loosely on the legend of Tannhäuser.
.
.
Zijn stijl was al grotesker en sensueler in
zijn ontwerpen voor 'Salomé' van Oscar Wilde (1894).
Salomé was de dochter van Herodus Antipas,
de koning van Judea ten tijde van de geboorte
van Christus. Zij danste eens zo schoon, dat haar
vader toestond om een cadeau te kiezen wat zij
maar wild. Zij koos het hoofd van Johannes de Doper
die in het gevang zat.
Richard Strauss schreef een gelijknamige opera.
.

.
Beardsley was also a caricaturist and even did some
political cartoons, mirroring Wilde's irreverent
wit in art. Beardsley's work reflected the decadence
of his era and his influence was enormous, clearly
visible in the work of the French Symbolists,
the Poster Art Movement of the 1890s and the work
of many later-period Art Nouveau artists like Pape,
Mucha and Clarke.
. .
Beardsley died of tuberculosis in Menton,
France at the age of 25 on March 16, 1898.
~
Al op zevenjarige leeftijd werd bij Beardsley
tuberculose geconstateerd, waaraan hij stierf op
25-jarige leeftijd op 16 Maart 1898.
.

~Charles Dickens~

Het alom bekende boek van Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
A Christmas Carol is al talloze keren aangepast
voor theater, film en televisie.
Er is weer een nieuwe  film onderweg en word uitgegeven op 
6  November 2009 door Walt Disney Pictures.
.
.
A Christmas Carol is a 2009 film adaptation
of Charles Dickens story of the same name.
The film is written and directed by Robert Zemeckis,
and stars Jim Carrey in a multitude of roles,
including Ebenezer Scrooge as a young, middle-aged,
and old man, and the three ghosts who haunt Scrooge.
.^.
A Christmas Carol began filming in February 2008,
and will be released on November 6, 2009
by Walt Disney Pictures.
It will receive its world premiere in London,
coinciding with the switching on of the annual
Oxford Street and Regent Street Christmas lights,
which in 2009 will have a Dickens theme.
..
A Christmas Carol volledige titel:
A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas
is een boek van Charles Dickens.

A Christmas Carol verscheen op 19 december 1843
en was uitverkocht op de 22e. De eerste versie was
geïllustreerd door John Leech. Het boek was dus
onmiddellijk een succes met een verkoop van
6000 exemplaren binnen een week. Dickens schreef dit
boek om een schuld te kunnen afbetalen.

A Christmas Carol is een Victoriaanse allegorie
over een oude en verbitterde vrek, Ebenezer Scrooge,
die in de nacht voor Kerstmis een aantal dromen heeft
en daardoor tot inkeer komt. Scrooge is een financier
en geldwisselaar die zijn leven lang zich heeft gericht
op het verkrijgen van meer geld en verder niets.
Hij veracht andere zaken dan geld, inclusief vriendschap,
liefde en de gedachten van het kerstfeest.
.
~Lees hier meer over Charles Dickens~
.
.
A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas
(commonly known as A Christmas Carol) is a book by
English author Charles Dickens(1812-1870)
that was first published
on 19 December 1843, with illustrations by John Leech.
Dickens called it his "Little Christmas Book".
The first of the author's five "Christmas books,"
the story was instantly successful, selling over
six thousand copies in one week.
Completed in six weeks under financial duress to help
pay off a debt, A Christmas Carol has become one of
the most popular and enduring Christmas stories of all time.
.   .
Dickens' novel is the famous tale of Scrooge,
who is visited by spirits from the past, present
and future. The novel is a celebration of Christmas,
but it is also a story of redemption.
Here are a few famous quotations from the novel:
.
.
“Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it."
~
"Lead on!" said Scrooge. "Lead on! The night is
waning fast, and it is precious time to me,
I know. Lead on, Spirit!"
~
"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep
it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and
the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.
I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.
Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!"
..
~More about Charles Dickens~

~Virginia Lee Burton~

   .
Virginia Lee Burton, an illustrator of children's books
known primarily for bringing inanimate objects to life
and for her vivid scratchboard drawings, was born
on August 30, 1909 in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. 

  Burton first studied art at the California School
of Fine Arts in San Francisco, and later returned
to the East Coast and attended the Boston Museum School.
An early job as an artist was as sketcher for the music,
dance, and theater sections of the Boston Transcript.
She subsequently settled in Folly Cove, Gloucester,
Massachusetts with her family.
.

.
  Burton illustrated and wrote many books,
the most beloved by children being Choo Choo:
The Story of a Little Engine Who Ran Away (1937),
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (1939), Calico
the Wonder Horse (1941), and The Little House (1942).
.

 

.  
"I literally draw my books first and write down
the text after ... I pin the sketched pages in sequence
on the walls of my studio so I can see the books
as a whole. Then I make a rough dummy and then the
final drawings, and at last when I can put it off no longer,
I type out the text and paste it in the dummy."
. 

 

.
  Burton won the Caldecott Medal in 1943 for
The Little House, the story of a house that is
swallowed up by a growing city but
is rescued in the end by being moved to the country. 

  Virginia Lee Burton died in 1968.
.

 

.
Virginia Lee Burton's books are notable for their
swirling, stylized illustrations and her stories
concerning technological change.
Characters are apt to be buildings or machines.
.
http://www.ortakales.com/Illustrators/Burton.html
.
picturebookart Shop

~Alison Jay~

Alison Jay was born in Hertfordshire, grew up in
Derbyshire and studied graphic design in London
where she now lives. After graduating she worked in
animation for a short time but gradually started to
get commisions in illustration, She works in Alkyd,
a quick drying oil paint on paper and sometimes adds
a crackle varnish to give the work an aged appearence.
.

. .
   .  
She has worked in all areas of illustration,
including advertising, packaging, editorial and design.
Her commisions include a 48 sheet poster for BT,
a tv commercial for Kellog's corn flakes and the
packaging of a new baby range for Crabtree and Evelyn.
She has also illustrated many children's books including
"Picture This","The Race" "I Took The Moon for a Walk"
”Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Listen Listen"
.

She recently worked with Aardman Animation
on the development of a feature film and
is currently working on a version of "The Nutcracker".
Her book " Welcome to the Zoo" which is a wordless
visit to a cage less " Animal hotel" has been selected
as one of New York's Bank Street's 2009 best
books of the year.
..
http://organisationillustration.blogspot.com/
..
http://www.childrensillustrators.com/illustrator.cgi/ajay
.

~Sunday Poem~

Painting Disappointed Love by Francis Danby

LIFE has dark secrets; and the hearts are few
That treasure not some sorrow from the world--
A sorrow silent, gloomy, and unknown,
Yet colouring the future from the past.
We see the eye subdued, the practised smile

The word well weighed before it pass the lip,
And know not of the misery within:
Yet there it works incessantly, and fears
The time to come; for time is terrible,
Avenging, and betraying.

~Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802-1838)

~The Frog Prince~

 
Chapter one!

One fine evening a young princess put on her bonnet
and clogs, and went out to take a walk by herself
in a wood; and when she came to a cool spring of water
with a rose in the middle of it, she sat herself down
to rest a while. Now she had a golden ball in her hand,
which was her favourite plaything; and she was
always tossing it up into the air, and catching it
again as it fell.

     After a time she threw it up so high that she missed
catching it as it fell; and the ball bounded away,
and rolled along on the ground, until at last it fell
down into the spring. The princess looked into the
spring after her ball, but it was very deep,
so deep that she could not see the bottom of it.
She began to cry, and said, 'Alas! if I could only get
my ball again, I would give all my fine clothes and jewels,
and everything that I have in the world.'

     Whilst she was speaking, a frog put its head out
of the water, and said, 'Princess, why do you weep so bitterly?'
     'Alas!' said she, 'what can you do for me,
you nasty frog? My golden ball has fallen into the spring.'
     The frog said, 'I do not want your pearls,
and jewels, and fine clothes; but if you will love me,
and let me live with you and eat from off your golden
plate, and sleep on your bed, I will bring you your ball again.'
     'What nonsense,' thought the princess,
'this silly frog is talking! He can never even get out
of the spring to visit me, though he may be able
to get my ball for me, and therefore I will tell him
he shall have what he asks.'

     So she said to the frog, 'Well, if you will bring me
my ball, I will do all you ask.'
     Then the frog put his head down, and dived
deep under the water; and after a little while he came
up again, with the ball in his mouth, and threw
it on the edge of the spring.
     As soon as the young princess saw her ball,
she ran to pick it up; and she was so overjoyed to
have it in her hand again, that she never thought
of the frog, but ran home with it as fast as she could.

 
Story by Brothers Grimm
Read the rest of the story here

~Sven Otto~

  .   
S., Svend Otto real name is Svend Otto Sörensen
He was born in 1916 and died in 1996.

He was a Danish illustrator of fairy tales, notably those
by Hans Christian Andersen. His first picture books
based on Andersen's fairy tales were ‘The Fir Tree’ (1968),
’ The Tinder Box’ (1972), and ‘The Ugly Duckling’ (1975).
He also illustrated a collection, Børnenes H. C. Andersen
(Children's Andersen, 1972).
Svend Otto S. has published a number of picture
books based on famous fairy tales, such as
‘Little Red Riding Hood’ (1970),
‘Puss‐in‐Boots’ (1972), ‘Sleeping Beauty’ (1973),
‘The Bremen Town Musicians’ (1974) ‘Snow White’ (1975),
‘Little Tom Thumb’ (1976), and many others.
.
.
I bought this dutch book on a flea market the other day!
It’s about two boys, Peter and Jaap, who
live on the islands, which are far at sea,
between Scotland and Iceland.
Today, the fishermen come home.
On one days father
allowed them
along and they catch a huge mackerel.
So they become the hero of the day!
~picture book published in 1982 by Lemniscaat~
~
Dit boek vond ik laatst op een rommelmarkt!
..
.
Svend Otto Sörensen is geboren in 1916 in Kopenhagen
en is overleden op 25 Mei 1996.
.
.
Svend Otto S. is opgeleid aan de St. Martin's School
of Arts and Crafts in Londen.
Hij werkte met houtskool, pen en aquarel,
in een naturalistische duidelijke stijl en werkte
bovendien met grote doeltreffendheid
en succes in de pure zwart-wit stijl.
Het zijn ook zijn tekeningen die kinderen met de
sprookjes van H.C. Andersen in verband brengen.
Ook de Duitse sprookjes van Grimm zijn
door Svend Otto S. geïllustreerd.
Onder meer deze illustraties leverden hem in 1978
de Nobelprijs voor kinderboeken op:
de internationale H.C. Andersen prijs,
die slechts twee andere Denen
(Ib Spang Olsen en Cecil Bødker) hadden gekregen.
..
Een reuzevangst door Svend Otto
Peter en Jaap wonen op de schapeneilanden,
die liggen ver op zee, tussen Schotland en IJsland,
vandaag komen de vissers thuis. Op een dag mogen
ze met vader mee en vangen ze een enorme makreel.
en zodoende zijn ze de held van de dag!
~prentenboek uitgegeven door Lemniscaat in 1982~
..

~Allan R. Banks~

Allan R. Banks was born in 1948
.
.
A native of Dearborn, Michigan, Allan R. Banks is a
highly accomplished artist whose credentials speak for
themselves. He was the recipient of the
Elizabeth T. Greenshields Memorial Fellowship in 1972
and 1973, the Stacey Award in 1974 and later,
an Ohio Arts Council Award.
. ..
Comprehensive classical training under Richard Lack and
later R.H. Ives Gammell at his private studios in Williamstown, Massachusetts, contributed substantially to the
development of Banks’ work. Visits to Europe brought
about a further development in the direction of his art
and a rediscovery of the role of plein-air painting.
.
.
Today, Allan Banks is one of America’s finest living
plein-air figure painters. He has exhibited widely in
galleries and museums across the country with numerous
works in private and public collections including the
Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford Connecticut,
The Newark Museum, and The Springville Museum.
In September 1996, Banks was on of a group of six American
artists to be invited to work and exhibit with
the Union of Russian Artists in Moscow.
.

.
.
The recent publication of his works as prints
has attracted an international following of dealers
and collectors. Publications of his work include featured
cover artist for American Artist Magazine and the
Classical Realism Journal. Mr. Banks is listed in
Who’s Who in American Art, Who’s Who in America,
Who’s Who in the Southwest and the Dictionary
of International Biography. He is currently on file
in the Smithsonian Institution and the National Portrait
Galleries in London, England and Washington, D.C.
as well as the Witt Library in London, the Capital Hill Club
and the White House in Washington, D.C.
.
.
Mr. Banks paints a variety of work ranging from
portraits, interiors, to garden paintings.
His most recent exhibition was at the Hillsdale College Museum, ‘American Seen’, October 2004, Hillsdale, MI.
.