Being Earnest
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple,” once said the legendary Oscar Wilde, a Dublin-born writer of poems, novels, and plays. When I began illustrating The Importance of Being Earnest for Portland Stage’s production, I was eager to tackle the Victorian era fashion. Aspects of dress, etiquette, and courtship were at the center of all my visual ideas. In my first sketch, I included a portrait of Wilde, as if he is serving up his witty farce like a confection. In others, I tried variations of figures, flowers, and romance. I couldn’t resist using a parasol as a...
Read MoreArt Expedition
I followed my daughter, Daisy, last week to another World Languages Art Expedition Kick-off at King Middle School in Portland. I first participated as a visiting artist in 2009 when she was a sixth-grader there. It was like old times heading to the bus from the 7:15 ferry. The language arts project asks 8th grade students studying Spanish or French to choose a Spanish or French artist to research and then create written and visual work based on that artist. In 2011, Daisy did this animation inspired by the art of Marc Boutavant. She’s now a senior sculpture major at Maryland Institute...
Read MoreA Christmas Carol redux
The holidays are all about traditions, making new and recreating old. I think this is the third run for my poster illustration for Portland Stage’s A Christmas Carol. I’ve blogged about it before HERE. Yet every production brings a new look and feel, and this year’s telling of the Charles Dicken’s classic hits every high note. Back in 2014, my early sketches involved Victorian ornaments with bits of narrative against a backdrop of smoking chimneys from Dicken’s London. I proceeded to color. But simple was best; ornaments were lost as the backdrop became the...
Read MoreTis the Season
Did those early snowstorms jump start your holiday spirits? They did mine! I kept thinking about that time I tapped my inner deer… and worked out an illustration for this year’s holiday card. This Deer Spirit is a cross between Ba from Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen and a sister in Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen. On a starry solstice night, our wild selves shine on, with some cut paper snowflakes for good measure. Shortly after I sent off my image file to be printed, we gathered for an intimate Thanksgiving here on Peaks, where the temps hovered around 4...
Read MorePastels ici!
I am thrilled to share that my pastel, Regatta, is included in Paintings of Portland by Carl Little and David Little. The book spans two hundred years of art in all seasons featuring my pretty city across the bay. Check it out! I did this pastel years ago for a show on Peaks Island, and it’s in the collection of Bill and Patty Zimmerman, wonderful patrons of the arts. That’s Fort Gorges, which I pass on every ferry trip, and I love seeing it under clouds of all shapes. Pastel studies of seascapes and changing light have kept me busy between illustration projects for many years....
Read MoreOpossum Tails to Come
I met Wilbur well before I began illustrating a picture book story about opossums! Last October the Center for Wildlife brought him in as a wildlife ambassador to my junior illustration class at Maine College of Art. We were all smitten by his toothy grin. This was my first sketch of many. By the spring of this year, author Lyn Smith sent me her manuscript for What Makes an Opossum Tick? and another journey of illustrating a picture book began. I gathered all I could on opossums and traveled to Moody Point for a creative retreat in late May. This house would become the setting for the...
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