Pearl Bates 14/04/2017 Pearl Bates 14/04/2017

Little treasures

E.H.Shepard was one of the first artists whose work came to my attention.

I can remember sitting on my bedroom floor, maybe aged two or three, poring over his illustrations for A.A. Milnes' Winnie the Pooh books.

I was so enchanted that I even wanted to be called Christopher Robin.

Yesterday, I found a little book of poems by Georgette Agnew in a junk shop – printed in 1927.

It's illustrated by E.H. Shepard, and the drawings are wonderful. The lines are elegant and beautiful – 'aesthetically pleasing', shall we say – and yet they are also full of such sweetness, humour and magic.

It was lovely to revisit his work - sometimes it's really worth it to take yourself back to your earliest sparks of inspiration.

I'm going to take the bank holiday Monday off. So I look forward to checking in with you again on Tuesday! I'm wishing you all a lovely spring break with plenty of chocolate.

Pearl

Pearl Bates 10/01/2017 Pearl Bates 10/01/2017

Lingering lines

My aunt mailed me some pages she'd torn from an American magazine.

These pages are drenched in fantastic, full-colour illustrations by an artist called Daniel Egnéus. His work is absolutely gorgeous, and I was inspired to have a go at creating something with looser, lingering lines, bold colour and a bit of distortion...

Pearl

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