Newsletter June 2024

Medusa originals for sale

May flew past without a moment to put a newsletter together but now we have a bumper month in June, with some very special originals from important books.

The retelling of Medusa by Jessie Burton was an ideal story for Olivia Lomenech Gill to illustrate and the book became a huge success with Bloomsbury.

My personal favourite is this one (below) even though it wasn't even used in the book. This was an exercise used to develop the character but it was felt that she looked too 'mixed-race' and not enough like a girl from a Greek classic.

Olivia engaged strongly with the characters – and she used oils, watercolours, etchings and inks to describe them. This is Driana.

She also found the perfect model for Orado, Perseus's own dog . . .

The setting also gave her the chance to illustrate not just seascapes but also starfish, lobsters, the very things that Medusa herself would be sent out to fish for. So whether or not you're interested in her story, you may like the idea of an enormous lobster etching on the wall of your dining room . . .

You can see the whole collection here, as well as some of her originals for her bird project.

Medusa – and birds

Original paintings from graphic novels

We also have some beautiful original paintings produced by Alexis Deacon for his two books, those originally known as Geis but then retitled as Curse of the Chosen. You can read more about this enormous project here.

Geis, or Curse of the Chosen

Do feast your eyes on these paintings but also tune into the storytelling, and if you know anything about graphic novels you'll realise just how much work was involved. Here are just two original drawings, the second also shows you the finished page as it appears in the book. It was a triumph.

The originals we have for sale so far are here, followed by other work produced for The Selfish Giant and a Roald Dahl collection.

The Paris Olympics

For another feat of endurance, what about Paul Cox's brief to include a ridiculous number of sports and many brands into this painting commissioned by GQ Magazine? Who else could have done that? More on Paul's illustration work here.

Jim Burns prints

Jim now has an Instagram account and he's added many of his paintings and pencil drawings so that anyone interested in buying a print can see the whole range. It�s almost like a portfolio, with new images tumbling in every day. If you'd like to buy a print, just contact him directly. Here's a favourite of mine, Homuncularium.

In other news . . .

John Wombat of Wombat Wargames has written an excellent review of Ian Miller's book, The Broken Diary, Fragments of Something Real. To me, John has captured the very essence of Ian. This is just a taster from his observation:

'Interspersed between descriptions of airport lounges and hotels, dog walking and cups of tea and coffee, along with the writer's wonderful noting of 'rat rain', it is Miller's many observations of unreality which are, perhaps, the most intriguing, and it is for the reader to deduce his or her own meaning. What do Jesus Christ's marbles represent? Why is there an omnipresence of crows? Who is the dog with the ink-stained collar? What is the meaning behind talking dolls?'