Christmas Pins & Holiday Art

This set of Commodore candle holder angels is one of my favorite

finds this season. 

Since becoming a regular on Pinterest, I no longer feel the need to 

own everything that charms me, but I did see a similar set in Jen's Closet on Etsy. 

hmmm

The worried angel on the left is so sweet and I love their varied expressions. 

The one next to her is like, what's wrong? pull it together, 

while the one next to her is like, huh, when do we sing? 

and the angel far right appears to be checking out some fella!

Holt Howard Reindeer candle holder 1950s

I thought I'd share some of the cute Christmas images from my

Pinterest Holiday board

They're mostly vintage, hard to resist the cute & the kitsch,

especially at the holidays.

Okay, this tree and room look hideous, but I'm sure someone once thought it was stunning. 

Oh, Jane.

Frosty Balls! Great stocking stuffer

This is Hatcher Pass in Alaska, beautiful.

Pinterest is packed with pins of cute animals. Still, this guy managed to stand out.

bottle brush snowman 1950s

Lefton snow baby figurine, looking demonic. Perfect for the holidays.

Not Christmas-y, just love them!

I adore this illustration and most of the old Holiday covers. 

As a magazine fan, I was surprised I'd never

seen Holiday before stumbling across these covers on Pinterest.

It was published from 1946-1977 and ran mostly long form travel pieces.

I just found a blog devoted to Holiday Magazine by 

Josh Lieberman and this is an interesting piece he wrote for The Paris Review 

here's a tiny excerpt -

"The most puzzling thing about the lost history of Holiday is that the magazine published so many famous writers: Joseph Heller, Irwin Shaw, Arthur C. Clarke, E. B. White, Arthur Miller, Gay Talese, Paul Bowles, Steinbeck, Saroyan, Kerouac, Cheever, O’Hara, Bellow, Thurber, Faulkner. 

It was in Holiday that Truman Capote declared that he lived in Brooklyn—by choice!"

Greetings from Brooklyn

I did a little window shopping in the West Village last week and

came upon two cool shops, Sockerbit , meaning sugar cube in English,

specializing in Scandinavian candies :)

I stopped for their sweet window display, showcasing

super cute matchbox mice by the Danish company, Maileg 

Next door is Shalva. The nicest salesgirl (in window) was giving out samples. 

I tried their hand scrub, with minerals from the Dead Sea. It felt fabulous and left a 

trace of oil, making my hands feel softer than they've been in years! 

I will definitely return to buy myself a luxurious gift or two :)

This unusual vintage card with dog face is by John Hovenstine

He's made several cute & funny cards like this, available at 

J.Hovenstine Studios on Etsy. Wish I had bought the double pug card for a friend.

Bob Staake from "Look Another Book"

I'm happy to report that I finally made it up to The Original Art Show at 

Society of Illustrators

Maira Kalman from "Looking at Lincoln"

There was a lot of terrific work! 

Unfortunately, I took the worst photos of some of my personal favorites.

Here are just a few of the pictures I can share. 

Dan Santat from "Bawk and Roll"

It's fun to see the originals plus read the names of the art directors,

editors and publishers that collaborate to make children's books the works of art 

they're capable of becoming.

Copies of the published books were included so you could compare the 

original to the reproductions and see the full stories. 

Several kids were there enjoying the exhibit and a few others, like me, 

were busy taking notes and studying details.

Jessie Hartland from "How the Dinosaur Got to the Museum"

I envy these illustrators, of course, but it's inspiring to see exhibits like this 

and to get a close-up view of the level of work being made.

Chris Van Dusen from "Randy Riley's Really Big Hit"

There seems to be an equal amount of old school painting and digital processes 

at work, as well as some nice combinations of the two. 

There was also an elaborate cut-paper piece by Giles Laroche 

Back to holidays

Have a lovely Christmas

Thanks for stopping by :)

xo, A

An Artist Talks in Brooklyn

Well, three to be exact...

Upon entering 440 Gallery for last Sunday's round of

artist talks, I saw that kids were already in there drawing away!

This weekend, July 21st & 22nd, is your last chance to see 

"From Mice to Monsters: Illustrations for Children"

at 440 Gallery in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

I attended last Sunday's artist talks and it was as interesting to me as it appeared 

to be for kids that showed up, listened and had a chance to create themselves.

First up was Sara Woolley and her mother, Leila Gomez Woolley.

They co-wrote Los Pirineos, the mostly true memoirs 

of Esperancita Gomez. Sara created all of the wonderful illustrations 

for this three volume graphic novel.

Above, Leila reads from the 2nd chapter.

The separate worlds of children versus adults is

beautifully illustrated throughout the story.

The setting is Colombia, a character, itself, in this rich tale.

Sara did a marvelous job describing her process,

sharing slides, sketches, technique and her book dummy with us.

I always enjoy seeing reference material artists use

to aid their creations. Sara shared numerous photographs from their trip back 

to Colombia, as well as older pictures of actual family members.

She and her mom were able to research on location with the help of a grant

from the National Association of Latino Arts & Culture (NALAC) 

Here, she shares one of her "model sheets"

which she makes for each character.

Sara dyes her papers 1st with fabric dye (powder based) 

to create a surface with depth and interest. 

Below is a perfect example, where she's created the illusion 

of an old painted concrete wall.

Here, she demonstrates how she uses the dye by wetting the paper,

masking areas and carefully sprinkling powder on before blending. 

*Important note- fabric dye is toxic, so best to buy a non toxic version, 

if your child is interested in trying it out.

Sara dyed all of her paper outside in her backyard and said 

she's sure her neighbors were curious about what she was up to.

Some of them came to her talk, so now they know ;)

Page from her book dummy

Sara draws in pencil then inks in everything

before laying in color and textures.

I love the way these look simply as ink drawings!

 I also enjoyed looking at the vintage fabric samples Sara chose from to

clothe her characters. Above, Esperancita in a yellow flower pattern 

before choosing a cute orange for her overalls :)

Please visit Sara's website to see much clearer photographs of her work

and to read more about this ambitious project. As far as I know,

several publishers are interested, but this book has not yet

found a definite publisher.

Could you be the one?

* Contact Sara with any inquiries

You can also follow her on Facebook *

:::

Next was Kievan Havens

                         

                           He builds some terrific 3D models before he begins an illustration. 

                                               Below is his Mr Sandman model.

You may be able to guess that one of Kievan's 

influences is artist, Maxfield Parrish. 

Here, he explains his process of working in black & white 

and then adding color in layered glazes.

In this particular piece above called Harvest Moon,

some at the opening were curious about how he

achieved a relief pattern with his leaves (sorry, can't see in photo).

It turns out, he'd used frisket to mask off that area, while reworking 

the background and when he removed the frisket,

the leaves took on an engraved appearance.

In other words, a Happy Accident my favorite kind ;)

Kievan works in quite a range 

and not specifically in the children's sphere.

Take a look at his site to see more. 

:::

And finally, Buket Erdogan, the curator of this wonderfully eclectic exhibition...

Buket is originally from Turkey and studied textile design.

While in NYC, designing kids clothing, she began painting and sending illustration

samples to publishing houses on the side. It didn't take long before she heard

from an editor at Scholastic interested in hiring her to illustrate one of their projects.

Unfortunately, the next step went nowhere and her dream seemed to end in a flash.

Cut to a year later and that same editor had moved to Simon & Schuster 

and called again! They published Mouse's 1st Christmas which made the 

New York Times Best Sellers List. 

She was well on her way to a career illustrating books for kids!

Community Bookstore set up books to be sold out of the gallery.

cute lil duckie

Above, the talented Yagmur Erdogan. By the looks of it, 

she could give her mom a run for her money ;)

It was fun to use pastels again and to see everyone jumping in

to create cute characters!

this friendly bird is by Leila Gomez

Ciao for now!

*Remember, the next round of artist talks is this Sunday July 22nd*

This Sunday's presenters are:

Melissa Guion :: Baby Penguins Everywhere

Bill Zeman :: Tiny Art Director

Mariko Suzuki-Bertocci :: Tumpsy's Time Travel

Took a slightly better photo of Subway Animals by 

your friend & mine, me!

:::

440 Gallery is located at 440 6th Ave btwn 9th & 10th St. in Park Slope, Brooklyn

Subway: F & G to 7th Ave / R to 4th Ave

Hours: Th & Fri 4-7 pm, Sat & Sun 11a - 7 pm *Closes July 22nd

Have a great wekend!

xo, A