Illustrated Children's Books

                             Illustrated Children's Books - Black Dog Publishing  

                        Babar the Elephant by Jean de Brunhoff, first published 1931

                    The beautiful children's illustrations by Kate Greenaway, 1885

The crazy illustrations from Edward Lear from around 1846, to accompany his witty

limericks and poems (his most famous being The owl & the Pussycat)

To the tiger in the zoo Madeline just said "Pooh-pooh". 

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans, 1939

                                    Everyones childhood favourite - Winnie the Pooh!  

                                                   A modern favourite - Maisy!

     The wonderful sketchy illustrations by Val Biro, 1966 for Gumdrop: The Adventures of

                                                               a Vintage Car

One of my favourite books as a child The House that Sailed Away, featuring these

fabulous quirky black and white sketchy illustrations by Laurence Hutchins, 1975.  

I've still got the book! 

                           The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers, 2006

           The scribbly style of Quentin Blake, famous for illustrating Roald Dahl stories

                              Captain Pugwash, illustrations by John Ryan 1976

   Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins, 1968.  Rosie the hen strolls around the farm unaware that a

     crafty fox is creeping behind her!  (Pat Hutchins also wrote The House that Sailed Away)

        Mog the Forgetful Cat, by Judith Kerr, 1970 and the instantly recognisable Miffy by

                                                         Dick Bruna, 1953

              Another of my childhood favourites - Meg and Mog by Jan Pienowski, 1973

The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Judith Kerr, 1968.  This is another book I frequently read as a child.  I can remember being very jealous because the little girls name in the book is Sophie - which is my sister's name.  I was so jealous because I thought my sister had a book written about her, and no one wrote a book for me!

        Some of Brian Wildsmith's amazing painted animal illustrations.  (I've blogged about a

                                         Brian Wildsmith book previously here)

Wow - where can I start with this fabulous book all about illustrated children's books.  If you're interested in children's illustrations I can highly recommend getting a copy of this comprehensive book, which covers authors and illustrators 1659-1945, contemporary children's books, and authors and illustrators 1945-now.    

There is a terrible pressure on children to leave pictures behind and grow into words, as though this is an essential part of education and maturity.  The illustrations in children's books are the first paintings most children see, and what we see and share at that age stays with us for life.

Excerpt from the foreward by Anthony Brown    

This book is filled with a wonderful selection of illustrations in different styles, along with information about the author and illustrator, as well as the stories behind the actual books.

I agree with Anthony Brown that many of the books I read as a child has stayed with me, and it was funny to find some I'd forgotten about whilst going through the book.  The House that Sailed Away, Meg and Mog, and The Tiger Who Came to Tea were particular favourites of mine - and it was so lovely to find them all in this collection.

Illustrated Children's Books was purchased from Readings in carlton.

CERES community environment park

                                                  CERES organic cafe

Some of the sculptures at the park - love the ironwork Kingfisher and the wire Kookaburra

              Bicycle workshop - love the use of old bike wheels as trellis for the vine!

                                                       Colourful murals              

                      Some of the rather fabulous free range chooks and roosters

                                                  The CERES plant nursery

A few weeks ago me and little Mr J visited CERES for a stroll in the sunshine.  CERES is a fabulous environment park / farm, with a cafe, a great plant nursery, allotments, a chook house and all near Merri Creek in Brunswick.

The area used to be a bit of a wasteland, but over the years its been developed into a fabulous eco community space with the help of volunteers.  There are a number of environmental and sustainable initiatives including the use of composing toilets, energy efficient lighting, recycling water, solar hot water, recycling food scraps to the chooks, revitalising and selling old bikes and growing local organic food.   

"Our mission is to demonstrate how an urban city farm can anchor a community and contribute to the local economy; providing an ethical market place, employment and opportunities for farmers, producers, teachers and food workers in an environment where we can celebrate the harvest."

It's a lovely place to go for a stroll - and if you go on a Wednesday or Saturday you'll be able to visit the organic market with its locally produced fruit and veggies, freshly baked breads and fair trade coffee. Yum!

I Heart Stationery

 I Heart Stationery by Charlotte Rivers (modelled by the Jolly cat!)

                                                                That's me painting! 

                                     My watercolour paint box and floral illustrations

                                                        My watercolour gift cards

                                                        City postcards by Kristin Carlson

                                  Gocco printed cards by Sydney based La Rara

                                            Fabulously quirky cards by Allison Cole

                                        Digitally designed wrapping papers by Smock Paper

                                              Bold calendar design by The Indigo Bunting  

                                                Rather gorgeous floral designs by Brie Harrison

I'm super chuffed to be included in Charlotte River's new book I Heart Stationery.  

I Heart Stationery is a very cute book showcasing a broad range of stationery products from cards, gift wrap and postcards, to notebooks, calendars and diaries.  The book covers work by designers from around the world (including several Australian entries), but best of all it's divided into chapters based on the techniques used to create the stationery items, such as hand-drawn illustration, block printing, digital illustration, letterpress, screen printing, collage and calligraphy.

Each section focuses on a particular technique with photos of the featured artists’ work, an introduction to the processes employed and a list of the tools used. 

I love that the book is divided into techniques, and it's great to see a variety of creative peeps making different products and designs in each section.  I'm lucky enough to be included in the hand-drawn illustration section with my range of watercolour floral, vintage tableware and cup-cake cards.  Yay!

A very BIG Thank You to Charlotte for including me in her fabulous new book, it's amazing to be featured alongside so many fabulously talented artsits from around the globe and I'm very flattered to be included. 

You can visit Charlottes website and she also has a gorgeous blog Lottie Loves which is well worth checking out (I was featured on her blog back in May last year, you can see the post here) as well as her children's blog Little Lottie Loves - phew she is one clever and busy lady! 

H is for Home

H is for Home - one of my favourite vintage online shops 

 

I love this old harlequin patterned biscuit tin

Fabulous retro fabrics & interior goodies

And I love the array of vintage & retro teacups, kettles and coffee sets

I thought I'd share one of my favourite online vintage shops - the rather fabulous H is for Home.

Based in England, H is for Home stock an amazing collection of retro, one-off and hand-made items (and a word of warning it's quite an addictive shopping site!)  Divided into various categories, the site showcases items such as textiles, clothing, ceramics, books, kitchenware and outdoor accessories - and all with a vintage flair.

I love perusing through the What's Cooking and Wining and Dining sections for superb collections of teasets, coffee pots, old kitchen utensils and patterned enamel saucepans - and wonder where they find all this fabulous stuff.... I'm imagining endless garage sales, trips around the UK and Europe visiting flea markets and antique fairs, and perhaps the odd rummage in a local charity shop.  Its my dream job!   

Check out the website at your wallets peril, and you can also visit the Blog.  Enjoy :)