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You are here: Home / Archives for art

Beautiful Useful Things: What William Morris Made by Beth Kephart ill. Melodie Stacey

April 11, 2022 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 11 Apr 2022

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“The nature elements that appear as motifs throughout the artwork, coupled with detailed close-ups of the processes of whittling, sewing, and bookbinding, reveal just how much Morris’ art was connected to his appreciation of the beauty of the natural world. A harmonious picture book whose poetic text and delicate illustrations befit its subject.” KIRKUS

A poetic story about the life and work of William Morris, maker of beautiful, useful things, sure to engage young dreamers and artists.

William Morris is best known for his colourful wallpapers and textiles, inspired by English forests and wild foliage. But  this icon of the Arts and Crafts Movement was also a poet, a painter, a preservationist, an activist, an environmentalist, and a maker of many other beautiful useful things, like books.

Follow the Brighton-based illustrator on Instagram:

 

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A post shared by Melodie Stacey (@melodiestacey)

And follow the author on Instagram too:

 

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A post shared by Beth Kephart (@bethkephartnow)

Filed Under: BookOfTheDay, NonFiction Tagged With: art, biography, design, nature, wallpaper

Elisabeth and the Box of Colours by Katherine Woodfine ill. Rebecca Cobb

February 15, 2022 By achuka Leave a Comment

Times Children’s Book of the Week 12 Feb 2022

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“A small elegant triumph.” The Times

Elisabeth loves to paint, just like her papa. She spends hours making her own pictures of everything she sees – and the more colourful, the better!

But when she goes away to school, she finds herself in a world of grey: grey buildings, grey uniforms, grey rooms. She misses Papa and all the colours of home. And one winter morning, she gets some terrible news that makes her days darker than ever before. Will Elisabeth be able to find the colour and joy in her life again?

A touching tale about friendship, family and finding joy in the darkest of times. Inspired by the childhood of French portrait artist Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun.

Filed Under: How About, Illustrated Tagged With: art, artist, portraits

Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi

February 15, 2022 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 15 Feb 2022

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What a great opening this book has:

Bitter had no interest in the revolution.

She was seventeen, and she thought it was ridiculous that adults wanted young people to be the ones saving the world, as if her generation was the one that had broken everything in the first place. It wasn’t her business. She was supposed to have had a childhood, a whole world waiting for her when she grew up, but instead kids her age were the ones on the front lines, the ones turned into martyrs and symbols that the adults praised publicly but never listened to because their greed was always louder and it was easier to perform solidarity than to actually do the things needed for change. It didn’t matter. None of it fucking mattered.

Set in the fictional city of Lucille — also the setting for Emezi’s earlier YA novel, Pet — the book needs to be read in the context of the George Floyd Black Lives Matter protests that have shaken American cities since 2020 and often been marked by police brutality.

It’s a YA read very much for a teenage audience, just as Malorie Blackman’s books are squarely pitched at a teenage rather than crossover or adult readership. Anyone who enjoyed Emezi’s adult novel The Death Of Vivek Oji will perhaps be somewhat disappointed by the relative sparseness of style in Bitter. This is not to say that the narrative is not spirited and enlivened with page turning momentum. It most certainly is. I read it in one and a half sittings. Language is largely given over to narrative and dialogue — all delivered in a conventional past tense (cause for celebration in itself). Colourful description is reserved in the main for characters’ clothing. “Her grey hair flared out wild and curly from her scalp, and she was wearing a purple suit the color of smashed berries.” That is Miss Virtue, an emblematic character in charge at Eucalyptus, a school and refuge (also emblematic) for young artists. [American spelling is retained throughout the book.] On the rare occasion when figurative language is applied to the narrative, it can come across as too showy. “Bitter took a gasping step away from Miss Virtue, betrayal flowering in her chest like a wildfire.” I think an editor should have advised a full-stop after Miss Virtue.  Fortunately, the very next sentence pulls it back: “She felt Aloe grab her hand, his palm cool and textured against hers, a new anchor as she span adrift.” Here the figurative language is spot on, the metaphor working with much more precision than the flowering/flowery simile. This was a rare point in the book (very near the end) where I noted a hiccup in the writing. For the most part, as I have implied, it speeds along with the reader not being made aware of style.

As the story reaches its climactic confrontation between the protesters from the Assata movement and Lucille’s corrupt leaders, the novel begins to read like high fantasy, and not necessarily in a bad way. A work of art begets an angel of vengeance. Violence erupts. There is death and injury (an eye shot out by a rubber bullet). Bitter, the main character, is aghast at what her art has unleashed.

Emezi is an enthralling writer and teenagers are lucky that she has chosen to write for them.

Follow her on Instagram:

 

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A post shared by akwaeke emezi (@azemezi)

[from Faber’s publicity]
Bitter is thrilled to have been chosen to attend Eucalyptus, a special school where she can focus on her painting surrounded by other creative teens. But outside this haven, the streets are filled with protests against the deep injustices that grip the town of Lucille. Bitter’s instinct is to stay safe within the walls of Eucalyptus… but her friends aren’t willing to settle for a world that the adults say is ‘just the way things are.’ Pulled between old friendships, her creative passion, and a new romance, Bitter isn’t sure where she belongs – in the art studio or on the streets.

Filed Under: BookOfTheDay, YA Tagged With: art, brutality, creativity, protest, refuge, revolution

Black Artists Shaping the World by Sharna Jackson and Zoe Whitely

October 25, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 25 Oct 2021

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“In its fullest life, this book should travel much further than a niche museum gift shop offering into classrooms and community spaces filled with Black youth as a platform for, and a celebration of, Black artistic innovation. Delivers a magnificent assemblage of Black artists we all need to know and cherish.” KIRKUS

Sharna Jackson’s experience as a children’s author who has worked for over a decade in the cultural sector, both at Tate in London and at Site Gallery in Sheffield, is combined here with the curatorial expertise of Dr Zoe Whitley, Director of London’s Chisenhale Gallery and co-curator of the landmark Tate exhibition ‘Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power’. Their book features artists working in a variety of media from painting, sculpture and drawing to ceramics, installation art and sound art. Artists featured include British Turner Prize-winning painters Lubaina Himid and Chris Ofili; renowned South African visual activist Zanele Muholi; Nigerian sound artist Emeka Ogboh; Sudanese painter Kamala Ibrahim Ishag; Kenyan-British ceramicist Magdalene Odundo; African-American artists Kerry James Marshall, Faith Ringgold, Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley; performance artist Harold Offeh; and moving image artist Larry Achiampong.

The result is a refreshingly contemporary celebration of Black artists at work today that will serve as inspiration to a new generation of aspiring young artists.

As can be expected of a book published by Thames & Hudson, it is a very pleasingly designed hardback title:

blackartistspread

Filed Under: BookOfTheDay, NonFiction Tagged With: art, artist, black, contemporary

The Weather: Pop-up Book by Maike Biederstadt

October 12, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

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In her hugely successful books Creatures Of The Deep and What’s In The Egg, as well as her enormously popular series of greeting cards for the Museum of Modern Art, Maike Biederstaedt has established herself as one of the preeminent paper artists working today. Now Biederstaedt takes book engineering to new heights as she immerses readers in five electrifying weather scenarios. As each spread unfolds, a meticulously designed landscape emerges–a freighter balances like a nutshell between high waves in the sea; a tornado takes terrifying aim at a truck trying to outrun it; a rain-spewing storm cloud towers like a skyscraper over a farm house. Nature’s delicate beauty emerges in the intricate shapes of a snowflake and in the luminous arc of a rainbow. Each page features an informative description of its weather event and the book closes with sobering commentary on the effects of climate change.

A wondrous introduction to weather for budding climatologists, this is also an artistic tour de force that collectors will treasure.

Filed Under: Gift, Illustrated, NonFiction Tagged With: art, paper engineering, pop-up

The Secret Garden: A Graphic Novel adapted by Mariah Marsden ill. Hanna Luechtefeld

July 16, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 16 Jul 2021

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“Luechtefeld’s orderly panels employ a deliberate earth-toned palette, starting with a decidedly dark feel and gradually lightening as the characters move through their own personal struggles with grief. The core of Burnett’s tale is present… often ably conveyed in lovely wordless scenes.” KIRKUS
“The parallels between the tending of the garden and character development within the story are reflected in the beautiful, hand drawn–style artwork, which gradually brightens from a washed-over neutral palette to lighter.” SLJ

It’s always of interest when classic children’s books are given new life in graphic novel form. Mariah Marsden’s adaptation omits certain elements from the original book but the key narrative elements remain. It is Hanna Luechtefeld’s atmospheric visual panels that make this presentation of the story so appealing.


At the back of the book, readers can learn about the life of Frances Hodgson Burnett and the history of British colonialism that contextualizes the original novel.

Follow Hanna Luechtefeld, a highly interesting and prolific illustrator, zine enthusiast and gallery curator/director from Kansas City, on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannaluechtefeld/

Filed Under: Blog, BookOfTheDay, Books, Classics, Illustrated Tagged With: art, classic, graphic novel, illustration

Line and Scribble by Debora Vogrig ill. Pia Valentinis

June 2, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 2 Jun 2021

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“Author Vogrig’s taut, spare narrative leaves ample space for readers to see their own personalities in the story while Valentinis’ illustrations of simple black lines accented with details of red on rich white paper do a superb job of presenting just enough and not too much, encouraging the engagement of readers’ imaginations. The clean sans-serif typeface is also red, visually tying the book’s design together. As the tension of the story escalates, the font size increases—a highly effective (and fun to read aloud) design aspect. Beyond enjoying the straightforward accomplishments of Line and the spontaneous creativity of Scribble, readers may arrive at a deeper understanding of their own unique qualities and how difference contributes to the richness and variety of friendships and diversity. Lovely to look at; profound to ponder.” KIRKUS

A picture book that celebrates imagination and friendship through simple shapes.

Line and Scribble do things differently. Line goes straight while Scribble wanders. Line walks a tightrope as Scribble bursts into fireworks. Line likes to draw with a ruler, and Scribble, well . . . doesn’t. But no matter how different they may seem, Line and Scribble always have enough in common to be best friends.

https://youtu.be/i861I9xBWns?t=518

* A friendship story that embraces differences instead of competing
* Emphasizes how imagination, creativity, and art can change how we see the world-and each other
* Promotes visual literacy, recognition, and learning to make connections

From constellations to roller coasters and breadsticks to bubbles, Line and Scribble shows how the two can come together to create beautiful, moving, and delightfully unexpected results.

Check out the illustrator’s website: http://www.piavalentinis.com

Filed Under: Blog, BookOfTheDay, Books, Illustrated, NonFiction Tagged With: art, difference, line, pencil, scribble

Draw With Rob 3: Build a Story by Rob Biddulph

March 1, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 2 Mar 2021

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Filed Under: BookOfTheDay, Gift, Illustrated Tagged With: activity, art, draw

The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau by Jon Agee

February 7, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 8 Feb 2021

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A new printing of this now-classic picture book.

“Outrageous!” the judges cried. “Ridiculous!” Who would dare enter a portrait of a duck in the Grand Contest of Art? But when Felix Clousseau’s painting quacks, he is hailed as a genius. Suddenly everyone wants a Clousseau masterpiece, and the unknown painter becomes an overnight sensation. That’s when the trouble begins. The concept and plot are clever and beautifully constructed with twists and turns, and Jon Agee’s trademark wit, humour and sense of the surreal. A playful examination of what realism in art actually means, and the difference between 2 and 3 dimensional.

Jon Agee’s website: http://www.jonagee.com

Filed Under: BookOfTheDay, Classics, Illustrated Tagged With: art, France, painting, portrait, realism

Milo Imagines The World by Matt de la Pena ill. Christian Robinson

February 3, 2021 By achuka Leave a Comment

New York Times Best Books Of 2021

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“This poignant, thought-provoking story speaks volumes for how art can shift one’s perspectives and enable an imaginative alternative to what is…or seems to be.” HORN BOOK

A warm and richly satisfying story from award-winning and New York Times bestselling picture book duo Matt de la Pena and Christian Robinson about a little boy with a big imagination who learns that you can’t know anyone just by looking at them. Set in a bustling city, and full of a family love that binds even in difficult circumstances.

Milo is on a train journey through the city with his older sister, looking at the faces of the other passengers and drawing pictures of their lives. The whiskered man with a crossword puzzle he imagines playing solitaire in a cluttered flat full of pets. The little boy in bright white trainers he imagines living in a castle with a moat and a butler. But when the little boy gets off at the same stop and joins the same queue as him, Milo realises that you can’t judge by appearances and that we are all more alike than we are different: both boys are visiting their mothers in prison.

Follow Christian Robinson on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theartoffun/

Filed Under: Illustrated Tagged With: art, drawing, imagination, journey, trains

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