Thursday, June 30, 2011

Beastly Dilemmas




I fell in love with Harriet Russell's work through her charming children's books
published in Italy thanks to Edizioni Corraini. It's not just the delightful 
illustration style; her surreal humour, visual puns and creative concepts
make her a very special author and illustrator...


A Colouring Book for the Lazy is full of black and white images,
for those who don't like to color in.


"Alice laughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said ‘one can’t believe impossible things.’
‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it 
for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." 
from ‘Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There’ by Lewis Carroll


This delightful conversation between Alice and the White Queen is the starting point for
 'Sixty Impossible things before Lunch', a book full of impossible pictures and questions such as
 
'Which came first, the chicken or the egg?', 'Where is the middle of nowhere?',
and 'What does the universe look like?'





Harriet studied art in Glasgow and completed her MA at Saint Martins College in London.
 Since then, she has authored six illustrated books and worked for many commercial clients
 including The New York Times and Channel 4. She regularly exhibits in London and New York.

VIctorian Monsters



Many thanks to Animalarium's reader Rebecca for this great Steampunk addendum to the recent Octomaids parade!
A wild ride directed and animated by Tom Werberfeaturing the altered engravings of Dan Hillier 
and a touch of inspiration from Monthy Python.



Sunday, June 26, 2011

Sunday Safari - A Dog's Life

From Animal Houses by Etienne Morel, 
thanks to Glen Mullaly's Vintage Books collection

Dedicated to our own sweet Emma



Mark Ulriksen, Splash landing



From Say Hello to Zorro by Carter Goodrich

From A day in the life of Murphy by Alice Provensen at R.Michelson Galleries

Eli, No! by Katie Kirk at Eight Hour Day



From Castle Tree Dogs by Leonard Baskin at R.Michelson Galleries


Saturday, June 25, 2011

From the Field


Yellow Warblers

Holly Ward Bimba, the artist behind Golly Bard, paints lovely watercolors inspired
by the nature surrounding her cottage in the rural village of Upperville, VIrginia.
After learning how to work with watercolor from her high school art teacher, 
she studied printmaking, papermaking, and book arts at Syracuse University. 
Watercolor still remains her favorite medium, and she uses it to create 
delicate portraits of wild animals, plants, and other tiny wonders.

Wild Hare and Honey Bees
Web Weaver no. 5

Ant Hill

I love the way she combines her methodic, science–oriented approach to observing and recording
details and patterns, with a spontaneous, whimsical style and wonderful feeling for color. 
Frolic in the Fernwood

Wild Hare and Honey Bees

Black Swan and Water Lily Bog

RIng Necked Pheasant no. 2

Bard is fascinated by natural history, repetition, and cataloguing. She often creates
artworks featuring series of animals, or series of artworks with the same subject. 

Swarm of Empresses

Migration



Fanciful Feather Collection no. 1

Beetles, Weevils and Flies no. 8
You can view the rest of the series on Bard's Flickr gallery

Bard has recently designed the Woodland Collection of fabrics. These charming works can be bought 
from Spoonflowera company that allows artists to print their own designs using digital textile printers 
and eco-friendly inks on natural fiber fabrics.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

How will the blackbird sing?



In 1958, the great Norman McLaren utilized paper cut-outs to transform 
a French–Canadian nonsensical folk song into this playfully surrealistic animation.



In 1940, the same song had inspired a book project by Bruno Munari.
Published for the first time in 1987, it was recently reprinted by Corraini
using silk-screen printing on transparent plastic sheets.

Two lovely examples of genius in simplicity!

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