All the images are available as giclee prints on my etsy site.
Teamwork is everything in my business of creating picture books. The author/illustrator team, the author/editor team, the illustrator/art director team, all of the above, plus the marketing team, bookstores, librarians, teachers, parents, grandparents–ALL of us are on the same team–to get good books into the hands of children.
So imagine my pleasure when I was asked by Robert Howe, Tunbridge Fair’s postermeister, to join his team and design the official poster for 2018. The theme is Celebrating Working Teams.
Of course the word Team can mean something different at the fair, but I still took it as a good omen.
The 1st time I went to the Tunbridge World’s Fair was with my parents, back in the early 1970s. We camped at a friend’s farm in nearby Chelsea and drove over to the fair, always held the 1st weekend after Labor Day. In those days there were still girlie shows at this and other Vermont Country fairs.
The Tunbridge World’s Fair was, and still is, a genuine agricultural experience, set in a lovely, narrow river valley.
There are horses, cattle and sheep, pigs, chickens, goats and rabbits proudly on display. There is a midway with rides and game booths, and all the greasy, sweet fair food you could want.
Nowadays, I go to draw the animals and the people.
So it was no surprise that the poster I chose to design featured both.
I was lucky to be given excellent reference photos by two fair photographers: Nancy Cassidy and Mark Dixon. Drawing from elements of these and my own research material, I created a rough sketch.
Photo by Nancy Cassidy
photo by Nancy Cassidy
photo by Mark Dixon
Once I had a B&W linoleum print, I painted it with gouache, layered a little painted carousel onto the girl’s tee, and added text in Photoshop.
I began by trying to match this old-timey font, found in the background of a photo, as my poster display type, but it didn’t enhance the finished artwork so I switched to Linolschrift for the finish.
The last adjustment was to eliminate the “gap tooth” on the little girl. The consensus was that it made her look a little too young.
I’m pleased with the finished product. I hope 2018 fair goers are too!
In the winter that water gets a hard shell of ice and becomes an entirely different playground, a brand new piece of “land” where we can walk, skate, and even drive snowmobiles and pickup trucks. Fishermen set up their shanties, forming cozy little villages.
As children we skated here with our mom and dog Lumpy.
When I illustrated my 1st book in 1983 I remembered times spent skating with my dog.
Cardinals in February from A Year of Birds by Ashley Wolff
During this Christmas break we got some lovely light snow and my sister and I set out to make this our new front yard.
We walked across the lake, following coyote tracks, and noticing where a bird landed, leaving wing and tail marks in the snow.
We made snow angels ,
built a buxom snow maiden,
did donuts,
drank cocktails,
and lost our balance!
Happy New Year.
Keep the wine handy.
We’re going to need it!
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The noble profile, the slitted eyes, the curls, the baaaaa, the level gaze…
I love drawing sheep.
This gal caught my eye this summer. When I went looking for a subject for my cottage postcards I was drawn to her curious face. As in the past, I begin by taping off a grid of small postcards on watercolor paper.
I make a quick sketch in pencil in each window and then use an assembly line approach to add colors.
Each layer adds detail and the sheep emerges.
The final touches are gold and silver ink…
and glitter!
Each card is the same but different, a one-of-a-kind love token for the friend who receives a “cottage card.”
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Acres of new real estate, previously accessible only by boat, become available for exploration on foot.
Fisherman, cell phone photo
Fishing is the winter sport of choice. Whole towns spring up, populated by fun loving, hard drinking fisher-people.
Fishing village, gouache on brown paper
Give up the booty, gouache on brown paper
Four fishing shanties, gouache on brown paper
Up on top there is the bait, and the fish who take it.
bait fish, cell phone photo
land locked salmon, gouache on brown paper
Pike and lake salmon carcasses, fillets removed, cell phone photo
But I became fascinated with what was going on UNDER all that ice.
What’s down below, gouache on paper
My personal goal for this winter is to walk across my lake and to drink an Irish Coffee in a pub on the other side If this happens I’ll let you know!
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If there is a cuter new “doodle” breed, I can’t imagine it.
She is the fortunate 1st ‘child’ of my beloved cousin, who dotes on her every wiggle and bark.
Now that she has come of age, I was commissioned to paint her official portrait.
Fergie and her family visited while the leaves were still falling in October.
After exploring the woods thoroughly, she chose this scene for her backdrop.
And I caught her sitting still, however briefly, in the driveway.
To begin this portrait I painted the background landscape before adding the main figure. I am working in gouache and trying to stay loose. A lot gets covered up by the figure, but it still seems to make the whole more cohesive.
To add the figure of Fergie I did a careful pencil drawing and used simple graphite transfer to position her in the scene.
Once Fergie was in place I added lots of shadowing to push the landscape behind her and leaves in the foreground to anchor her on the ground.
I paid the most attention to her face, trying to capture the sweetness and life-not to mention her glorious curls!
Do you see a Thanksgiving tradition?
Perhaps a savory side dish?
How about a centerpiece for the table?
How about the Mayflower?
I scoured the web looking for another example of Blue Hubbard Squash turned Mayflower ship, but this was as close as I could come.
My dad had different ideas. He took a huge squash, hollowed it out and carved it into a ship. He made dowel masts and paper sails.
My mom filled it with tangerines and nuts and the Blue Hubbard Mayflower sailed out on Thanksgiving tables in the early 1960s.
Thanksgiving in Ripton, VT 1962
And the next year, same sails, different squash!
Thanksgiving 1963, Ripton, VT
You can see me, smiling, directly to the left of the Mayflower, on my dad’s lap.
Time passed, I grew up, and when I had children I wanted my own Blue Hubbard Mayflower centerpiece.
San Francisco, 1997
Tutorial not included. This is truly DIY!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Who hibernates? Bats, Bears,skunks, bees, snakes, and groundhogs to name a few.
Since moving from a mild California climate to the stricter seasonal progression of northern New England, I’ve become much more sympathetic to the concept of hibernation!
On the last day of Baby Bear Counts One, Mama and Baby Bear are ready to curl up and sleep the winter away.
Showing the process of sleeping is relatively easy, but showing dreaming was a challenge in Only The Cat Saw. When I was a child I often dreamed of being near the ocean or swimming when I really needed to get up to urinate!
Enter a caption
Holly Taylor modeled as the sleeping Amy, way back in 1984
Amy, dreaming in Only The Cat Saw. Acrylic on paper
Of course, we sleep all year long, and humans enjoy it as much as animals. Mostly sleep happens when it is too dark to draw, but sometimes a nap overtakes us, and when it does I seize that moment of daylight stillness to draw.
Since the late 70s I’ve drawn people and creatures I love while they were sleeping.
Here is a selection.
watercolor sketch of my sister Peregrine, asleep on the couch after wisdom tooth removal..
watercolor sketch of my sister Peregrine.
this drawing of Rowan reminds me of Amy’s pose. Colored pencil on brown paper
Brennan, asleep. Colored pencil on brown paper
Rowan, asleep. Colored pencil on brown paper.
Sabin, asleep. Marker on brown paper.
Tula napping. Watercolor on brown paper
Nutkin, sleeping. Acrylic on paper.
Wildridge kitten, sleeping. Gouache on brown paper.
I like lots of aspects of the fishing culture. I like lakes and rivers. I like boats. I like hand tied flies, and I like fish.
I just don’t want to catch them and kill them and eat them.
So I observe, ask questions and translate into various paintings.
For the 1st time I am living on the shore of a frozen lake. I knew about ice fishing, but I didn’t pay much attention. This winter, life on the ice is proving to be a vivid, ever changing show.
The shanties began to appear in December and now there are at least 3 dozen.
Some have full on heating systems and rustic touches like elbow stove pipes. Beyond you can see a “bait bank.” A bank consists of a submerged barrel to store live bait, generally with a padlock on it.
This one has a solar powered porch light too.
And some have homey, gingham curtains and custom, fish, address plates.
Fascinated by this new, growing village on the ice, I began photographing, drawing and finally painting with gouache.
A helpful fisherman posed for the foreground figure. His manual ice auger is in the background. many fisherman have power tools for this.
Once the ice has formed, it is strong enough to drive on, so there are tire tracks everywhere.
Once I became familiar with what the surfaces looked like, I began to think about what lay beneath.
That’s when I imagined this scene.
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She’d recently given birth, had a dry, raggedy coat and kept her tail permanently tucked between her legs.
She refused to jump into a car, but broke three (empty) bowls by jumping onto the kitchen counter in search of food to filch.
She’d had a hard life to that point.
I took her to Holly Park on her first day in Bernal Heights so she could get a view of her new neighborhood.
Tula never met another dog she didn’t like, or at least tolerate. I saw her growl only a few times, and she had to be taught how to bark again.
Though she always kept an eye on me, She liked and tolerated children of all ages too.
Tula got around.
As my black and white shadow, she traveled from California to points all over the East Coast.
On the Pacific Coast at The Sea Ranch,
At the Brooklyn Bridge with Illustrator Paul O Zelinsky.
And on top of Vermont’s Mt Abraham with Sabin Russell.
Tula’s favorite spot was belly deep in some body of water.
but she was happy in all weather as long as I was there too.
After any encounter with moisture, she would joyfully roll in grass or sand or the dusty driveway.
Tula was the sweetest dog I’ve ever had and she will be profoundly missed.
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