Illustrations for an Exhibition
There is an exhibition of children’s illustrations taking place in Berwick upon Tweed, and I have been asked to put in some work. I needed to take some photographs, so propped the illustrations up on the ironing board, and hooked back the lace curtain, and did my best. These have been reduced down to 4 centimetres, so as to be able to email them without too much trouble, and the images are just for quick reference. I wouldn’t win a prize for photographing art, but maybe the ramshackle nature of these photographs, together with my faint image here and there where I am reflected on the glass, adds a certain slightly amateurish je-ne-sais-quoi to the whole enterprise. Over the pictures themselves I have taken a fair amount of trouble The ones with rabbits in were for two picture books published by Orchard Books At that time we only had one table, for eating and working. Spaghetti spills were a constant worry. The cat used to walk across the table, and over my paintings too at times. I remember a nice picture of roses with a path of dirty paw marks over the top. But the rabbit illustrations took a long time so I tried very hard to protect them. There were 26 rabbits in the Fitzwarren family, plus Ma. The 26 rabbit offspring were named, from Alice (an artist rabbit) to Zanzibar (a magician rabbit). The continuity problems were immense. The cat, the lovely cat, had a passion for Marks and Spencer Chinese Chicken, it could smell it through the bag and its wrappers. I remember my son talking about something, whilst eating Chinese chicken, and the cat sitting on the table and nicking a chunk of chicken off his fork. Hygenic days….
Hare Moths Candle
Had to scan this on my computer in two parts, hope the join doesn’t show. Put my cardigan over the scanner in case light crept through, as this is a deep edge canvas. Needed to do the scan as it may be used as part of publicity material for an exhibition at Harestanes, an Arts Centre near Jedburgh, subject The Hare. The colours come out brighter than the original, even though I have taken otu much of the magenta.
The little ghost figure with the candle is like Wee Willie Winkie. In the background is a city, perhaps Sunderland, with the bridge, and church spires or factory chimneys. White flowers and moths shine out at night. What is the hare doing on this wasteland? It looks alarmed, almost frozen, but ready to flee.
-
Archives
- January 2021 (1)
- December 2020 (3)
- August 2020 (5)
- May 2020 (3)
- January 2020 (2)
- December 2019 (4)
- November 2019 (6)
- October 2019 (7)
- September 2019 (7)
- August 2019 (1)
- May 2019 (3)
- April 2019 (9)
-
Categories
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS