Tis the season
Coming up with an annual holiday card is never a chore. It’s a chance to express my love of winter, long dark nights, and traditions. Ever since we saw a splendid exhibit of Kay Nielsen’s work at the MFA in Boston in October, I’ve had crowns on my mind. seen at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts photo © Jamie Hogan This detail in particular struck me. I became obsessed with these three figures. Art by Kay Nielsen I tried making an owl crown for myself at Halloween, with mixed results. photo by Daisy Braun Midway into November, when the darkness was setting in before 5 PM, I...
Read MoreThe Clean House
Between travels and a new book deadline, it takes a soggy Sunday to return to blogging. It’s a new season at Portland Stage, their 46th, in fact. For the fifth time, I illustrated the whole season of theater posters. The Clean House by award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl was tricky, as evidenced by the number of ideas it took for me to land the right image to suggest the layers of themes. The story revolves around Lane, a busy doctor whose marriage is in doubt, and her hired help, Matilde, a young Brazilian woman more interested in telling the perfect joke than cleaning. I enjoy the...
Read MoreArt Market Budapest
We are back from a week in Budapest, Hungary! Our trip destination was Art Market Budapest, the biggest international contemporary art fair in Eastern Europe that highlights the work of emerging talents from Hungary and beyond. Our daughter, Daisy Braun, was invited to show her thesis work from MICA with fellow alum, Fanni Somogyi, a native of Budapest. Daisy and Fanni arrived about three weeks prior to the opening, to make work and prepare for their installation, Communal Current. Besides making new sculptures based on her Exoskeleton series, Daisy needed to find models to wear them. Fanni...
Read MoreFashion Illustration Week
Thanks to the Illustration Institute and sponsorship from the Roxanne Quimby Foundation, I was immersed in Fashion Illustration Week, held at the venerable Mechanics Hall in Portland, Maine. On Monday our class received a swag bag of treats including an Uppercase Magazine! Alex Rheault, a former colleague at Maine College of Art, demonstrated the croquis, a fashion sketch figure upon which any garment can be drawn. Our class of 20 included painters, designers, textile artists, actors, writers, retired art teachers, illustrators, and fashion thinkers. We worked in the spacious ballroom with...
Read MoreSkibby camp
A week ago I traveled with author Lyn Smith to Rockywold-Deep Haven Camps in Holderness, New Hampshire for the NESCBWI Squam Lake Writer’s Retreat. My little picture book dummy taking shape over many months was ready for review! We checked into our rustic room, giddy as campers. After mingling a bit and meeting our gracious event coordinator/Co-Regional Advisor Denise Ortakales we headed to the dining hall. The warren of lodges and cabins has lined the northern shores of Squam Lake since 1897, nestled beneath birches and pines. Such a treat to meet simpatico folks and find out what...
Read MoreBaby Bear’s Picnic
Do you feel that crisp air? Some of you may be mourning the passing of summer, but I am jazzed for fall, my favorite season. August flew by while I’ve been working on an illustration project that is not quite ready to share. So meanwhile, here’s a commission done recently, an illustrated gift for an expectant couple. The buyer first requested a pride of lions, but this changed to a family of bears because of the baby’s room theme. I sent these rough sketches first, of a baby bear at a campfire with Mama and Papa Bear. I also tried a bear family with a full moon. And a...
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