18 July, 2010

Favourite books from childhood

I have long treasured books from my own childhood.  I don't know how much of the style of certain illustrators influences other people's work, but in my case, I'm sure each artist, whose works I appreciate, is going to be an influence, however subtle.
Back in my childhood, I read and re-read collections of fairy tales.  Sometimes these books were given as gifts and I still have them with me today.

The artist, Libico Maraja (1912- 1983) illustrated a number of fine books.  The work below is from a version of The Wizard of Oz. This edition is dated 1958 and published in Australia by Golden Press, Sydney.
I loved then, as I do now, that Maraja's illustrations are well drawn with a straight-forward approach to the subject.  He does not cute-ify his images, so in my mind as a child, they were totally believable.

I'll show more great illustrations from my books in the next few months.






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