painting – ACHUKA Children's Books UK

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

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

Tove Jansson At Dulwich Art Gallery

October 23, 2017 By achuka Leave a Comment

The Moomins may not … have been how Jansson would have chosen her work to be defined. Their pottering around their flowery valley, and hibernating through the fierce Nordic winters until a messenger brings news of spring made her famous the world over, but they have completely overshadowed the reputation as a serious painter that she yearned for all her life, and which the Dulwich exhibition will try to rescue.

“The pictures are wonderful,” said the gallery’s director, Jennifer Scott. “I’ve surprised myself at how drawn I feel to them. She fits perfectly into one of the things we do best at Dulwich, which is to take a very unfamiliar name, or a name people think they know, and show a completely different aspect of their work.”

Tove Jansson 1914 – 2001, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 25 October 2017 – 28 January 2018

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/22/moomins-and-more-uk-show-to-exhibit-tove-janssons-broader-work

Illustrator of Fifi and Antoine Dies – Telegraph artist obit.

September 30, 2015 By achuka Leave a Comment

in 1956 [Roland Collins] illustrated Charlotte Haldane’s canine children’s book Fifi and Antoine.

via Roland Collins, artist – obituary – Telegraph.

My favourite painting: Jacqueline Wilson – Country Life

August 31, 2015 By achuka Leave a Comment

Long ago, I endured a disastrous book tour of America (just two children and a shopper taking the weight off her feet at one venue). I had less than an hour to myself in Chicago, but I ran to the Art Institute, determined to see its famous Seurat. I only managed a few minutes in front of it because I was waylaid by Renoir’s painting of two circus girls. I’ve never admired Renoir’s salmon-pink fleshy ladies, but I loved these girls in their white-and-gold costumes, collecting oranges as a tribute to their performance. There’s such an immediacy about the painting that it was a surprise to discover it was painted in Renoir’s studio. The real girls, Francisca and Angelina, were 17 and 14, but the girls in the painting seem much younger. I looked at this painting and decided to write about a Victorian circus girl one day. And now I’ve written five books about circus star Hetty Feather.

via My favourite painting: Jacqueline Wilson – Country Life.

“The Moomin Project” Gives Tove Jansson’s World A Creepy New Look

August 8, 2015 By achuka Leave a Comment

Artist Ingela Hallberg has been reimagining Tove Jansson’s beloved children’s books, with a series of artworks called The Moomin Project. And the results are pretty striking.

via “The Moomin Project” Gives Tove Jansson’s World A Creepy New Look.

ACHUKAreview; Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine

July 21, 2015 By achuka Leave a Comment

This is SO good! Absolutely up my street. An economically written YA novel with wryly observed characters and an original storyline that is emotionally engaging to a degree that more overblown, in-your-face writing can never reach.
I want Wes Anderson to discover it and make a movie of it.

Read the rest of the review >

http://www.achuka.co.uk/reviews/?p=589