My four favourites at the Children's Book Illustration exhibition

Alas, once again I post too late for any of you to visit this show.  However, the MA Children's Book Illustration Graduation Exhibition happens every year at the Cambridge School of Art (part of Anglia Ruskin University) so put it in your diary for 2017!  It is always a highlight that lifts the spirits.

Here are my favourites:

© Katyuli Lloyd

© Katie Sheppard

© Sanghyun Chun

© Anuska Allepuz

I appear to have a penchant for black-and-white magical-realism panoramas... :-) But as you can see there were plenty of other kinds of illustration in the show as well.

You might also like my blog post about the 2014 MA Children's Book Illustration show:  http://artincambridge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/ma-childrens-book-illustration-degree.html

MA Children's Book Illustration Degree Show 2014

Do you want to take your children somewhere to look at art?  Do you want to revisit your own childhood?

Or do you simply want to see some absolutely stunning art work by the new generation of illustrators?

Then visit the Degree Show of the amazing Master of Arts in Children's Book Illustration at Cambridge.

Here's my pick:

© Hrefna Bragadottir

A whimsical creature that reminds  me of Dr Seuss.  Gorgeously spare.


If you like any of the pictures, do click on the illustrator's name to visit their website.  These artists have amazing websites!!  Such fun for children to look at, too.

© Irene Dickson

You can dream yourself into this magical garden.  I love the little red wellies, and the big dragonfly.

© Jo Weaver

A lone bear swimming through what could be a remote lake in Canada.  Atmospheric and melancholy.  And makes you want to know more.

© Renata Galindo

Crisp, minimal drawing and composition, and such fun:  mermaid being serenaded by pirate.  Love the hair and the pirate's gesticulating hand.  Also the scritchy-scratchy clouds.

© Melissa Castrillon

Summertime frolicking.  A great happy person in a fabulous jungley frock.

© Carol Reynoldson

Witchy night-time magic.  This takes you to another world.

© Joy Rutherford

Children will enjoy the moving animation of this story-in-motion. Watch the shadow play on the monitor.  Reminds me of the famous German paper-cut animation film maker, Lotte Reiniger.  And of Indonesian shadow puppet plays.

© Nan Deng

A quiet scene, like moments from a Wong Kar Wai film.  Even the juxtaposition of (close-up) foot and figure in front of mirror is like an edit in a movie.

© Sarah Palmer

Hands-on fun for little (and big) children:  lift the flap book of little monsters eating things.

© Julie-Anne Graham

People eating and drinking: a genteel and very, very English afternoon tea visit.  Jolly lady in lace blouse entertains little tousle-haired child, and there's so much to look at - it's like an anthropology lesson in how to be English:  overstuffed armchair, flowery cushions, etagéres with cup cakes and sandwich slices sans crust, arts-and-crafty wallpaper, and a lovely communion between the generations.  Through the window: not the expected rural scenery but (surprise) something reminiscent of Canary Wharf in London.

© Monika Filipina Trzpil

The eating theme continues, this time with fanciful animals at a picnic.  Hooray!  (They all seem to shout.)  Don't you want to be there and pour yourself some tea from that spouty thermos?

© Alexandra Clarke

More animals.  Children's illustrators love animals!  These pigs intrigue me because the scene is plucked from a story. I want to know what happens next.  And isn't that one of the hallmarks of a good story?

Is that what illustration is?  Telling a story in images?  Sometimes to accompany text?

© Jessica Colón

This sassy person seems more stand-alone but I think she's a character out of a story.  I want to know her name (is it Bijou?) and what she will do next.  And what she keeps in that cheeky red handbag!

This is not exhaustive, by the way.  I only had my mobile phone on me so not all my pictures turned out very well.  You can see how much there is to look at (and small children will have fun running round the mezzanine gallery -- I remember my son throwing paper airplanes from the railings...)

MA Children's Book Illustration, degree exhibition at the Ruskin Gallery, in the Cambridge School of Art, at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.

Ends 13 March!  Don't miss it!

© Emma Armitage.

I end with these magnificent guinea pigs!  I could look at them for hours, making up names and personalities.  Some remind me of guinea pigs we once kept....

Don't you love these illustrations?

Related posts:

John Lawrence woodcuts  to illustrate Philip Pullman

Three drawings at the Drawing Cube

Nine fun things to do with children in an art gallery

Nine arty things to do in Cambridge in March 2014

It's the return of the 'What's on' post!

And my, is there ever a lot going on in March.  Here's a foretaste.

The best thing?  Every single exhibition and event is ABSOLUTELY FREE.  Yay.


1.  Elizabeth Eade

  
 
 I've never been to this pub.  I'm not really a pub person (more of a café person) but this pub has art so I really want to visit.  Elizabeth Eade is yet another of the many talented graduates from the Cambridge School of Art.  

Also:  steampunk woman on shark.  I am smitten. 


Where:  The Geldart (pub), Ainsworth Street (corner Sleaford St; in that area of CB1 that also includes Sturton St, York St and the Backstreet Bistro).
Ends 13 March.

2. John Craxton

John Craxton, Cart Track, 1942-3.  Source: Fitzwilliam Museum

The most talked-about show in Cambridge at the moment.  I went to see this on the weekend.  Definitely worth having a look.  I found some of the works quite kitschy, others very derivative (Picassoesque, Graham Sutherlandesque) but this one here, plus 2-3 others, were amazing.


Where:  Fitzwilliam Museum. 
Ends 21 April.

 

 3.  MA Children's Book Illustration

 

The awesome annual MA Children's Book Illustration show.  Don't miss it.  These hyper-talented illustrators will be tomorrow's Quentin Blakes and Judith Kerrs.  Cambridge School of Art graduates already keep winning all the illustration prizes there are in the world (practically).


Where:  Ruskin Gallery, in the Cambridge School of Art at Anglia Ruskin University.
Ends 13 March.

ETA:  I reviewed the illustration show in a later blog post (with many wonderful pics!).

 

4. North by Northwest at Hot Numbers

What?  Yet another amazing initiative from the ever-astonishing Hot Numbers (my favourite Cambridge coffee house-cum-art gallery)?  The art gallery is Williams Art Gallery; it's joined to the coffee house via an open archway.

Cary Grant plus a foamy cappuccino.  Yum.

Where:  Hot Numbers coffee house, Gwydir St (corner Mill Rd, in the old brewery)
Hitchcock film screening!  Mon, 3 March.  7 pm.

 

5.  Melanie Max and Katharina Klug

  

 Melanie Max: one of my favourite Cambridgeshire artists.  I don't know Katharina Klug but am looking forward to discovering her ceramics.

I've not yet visited Burwash Art but Burwash Manor is lovely, with a sweet little tea shop.  About 15 minutes' drive out from Cambridge (depending where you start from).

Where:  Burwash Art at Burwash Manor, New Rd, Barton.

Ends 30 March.

 6. Image / Object / Image





A weird thing happening in the English Faculty.  Not quite sure what this is all about but looks intriguing.  Also, a chance to peep inside the neo-modernist English Faculty building, designed by architects Allies and Morrison and finished in 2004.

Where:  Judith E. Wilson Writing Studio, English Faculty of the University of Cambridge, West Road.
Ends 1 March (so hurry!!).

7.  Oliver Barratt and Mark Cazelet

Oliver Barratt, sculpture.  Source:  Lynn Strover Gallery

To my shame, I have yet to visit Lynn Strover's gallery, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.  I keep meaning to cycle out there and then it rains or I have a deadline or something... Still, I am determined!  If you go, drop me a line and tell me about it.

Sat, 15 March - Sat, 15 April.
Lynn Strover Gallery, Fen Ditton.

8.  Ash Summers and Roeland Verhallen

 A Dutch photographer and an artist based at Wysing Arts.  Could be interesting.  If you go to Image / Object / Image (see above), why not pop in here?  It's 1 minutes' walk away.


Where:  Art at the Alison Richard Building, West Road.
Ends 28 March.

9.  Art and Power in Fiji

This exhibition is still on.  I haven't seen it yet but it's definitely not one to miss. I love the MAA!

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA), Downing Street. 
Ends 30 April.

Related posts:

My five favourite works at the Cambridge School of Art Degree Show

Patrick Thurston at Williams Art Gallery

What's on at the Cambridge Science Festival

Permalink:  http://artincambridge.blogspot.com/2014/02/nine-arty-things-to-do-in-cambridge-in.html

Three drawings at the Drawing Cube

The Drawing Cube, 9 Norfolk St, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB1 2LD, next to CB2.

There's a new little gallery in town, and it's called The Drawing Cube.  See how friendly and cosy it is!

Three pictures

I ambled on in and here are my three favourites from the current exhibition.

Trudi Esberger, work from the series Arrival, 2012, gouache and pencil, signed digital print

I love the mysterious atmosphere, the crisp clean lines, the long shadow, the transparent figures in front of the low wall, the BLUE.  I'm reminded of Edward Hopper and the covers of hard-boiled detective novels. 

Becky Palmer, No Doubt, 2013, watercolour and acrylic on paper

I love images of arthropods (as you may know) so these kooky bugs appealed to me particularly!  There's a whole series of beetles and butterflies but this leaping creature, hovering above its shadow and striving upwards to where another elusive beastie disappears, cropped by the edge, says it all.  Lovely spare lines and colour accents, and a great sense of motion.

Joanne Young, The Journey Home, 2013, graphite on paper

I'm including this because it reminds us all that you don't need a whole lot of complicated equipment to make fantastic art.  All of this is made with just a pencil and a piece of paper.  The varieties of greys, of texture and of line, and the different kinds of light (and even colour) which they evoke, are amazing.

Three artists

All the artists are graduates from the world-famous MA in Children's Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art (part of Anglia Ruskin University).

One affordable comic book

While I was in the gallery, I picked up this wonderful comic book, financed by crowdfunding, and full of quirky graphic short stories by the exhibited artists and many more.

Buy it for £3.50 from the Drawing Cube.  Or buy it online via the Etsy shop.

These books make excellent gifts from Cambridge (for those of us tired of yet another pot of local honey or teabags with a picture of King's College on the packet...)

Find out more:

To find out more about each artist:  Click on their name above.

To find out more about this and other upcoming exhibitions at the Drawing Cube, click here: The Drawing Cube

The exhibition ends Sunday 9 June.

Permalink:  http://artincambridge.blogspot.com/2013/06/three-drawings-at-drawing-cube.html

Sneak preview: Arty events at the Cambridge Science Festival

University of Cambridge Science Festival, 11 - 26 March 2013

Source:  Festival brochure cover by Tim Parker.

Plan ahead and pre-book!  Choose from hundreds of events at the Cambridge Science Festival whose guest director this year is Benedict Cumberbatch.  I have picked out for you the best of the art-related science events.  So have fun choosing how arty you want your science to be this March!

Visual arts

Map it

Kettle's Yard. Free drop-in.  12-24 March 2013 (but closed on Mondays), 11.30-5 pm. 

Wales-based artist Anne-Mie Melis will a family-friendly photomontage to encourage you to find your own connections between art and science.

Caught on camera:  engineering in action
Michaelhouse Café, Trinity St.  Free exhibition.  11-23 March (closed on 17th).  8 am - 5 pm.
Entries from the photography competition at the Department of Engineering.

Science and the Renaissance printing press: a fruitful encounter

Cambridge University Library, Morison Room. Free talk. Wed, 13 March, 5-6 pm. Pre-book here.

View some of the earliest scientific incunabula from the library's collections.  Medical, astronomical, astrological and mathematical books were illuminated by hand and decorated with woodcut illustrations.

While you're in the Morison Room, use the opportunity to look at the stonecarved letterwork by the Kindersley workshop, displayed on the walls.

The American woodsman: John James Audubon and The Birds of America

Cambridge University Library, Morison Room.  Free talk. Mon, 18 March, 5-6 pm.Pre-book here.

Learn about and view The Birds of America by the French-born naturalist John James Audubon, one of the most lavish plate books ever produced (first published 1827-39).

White Gyrfalcons, by J.J. Audubon.  Source: Wikipedia.

A goodly spring of flowers: early botanical books in Cambridge University Library

Cambridge University Library, Morison Room.  Free talk. Wed, 20 March, 5-6 pm. Pre-book here.

Learn about early botanical books, from 15th-century herbals illustrated with woodcuts to elaborate 18th-century plate books.

Biological design:  the history and future of plant architecture

Sainsbury Laboratory Auditorium, 47 Bateman St.  Free talk. Wed, 13 March, 7.30-8.30 pm.Pre-book here.

A talk about the history of plant architecture but the main arty reason to go is that you'll get the chance to peek into the award-winning Sainsbury Lab (normally closed to the public).  Find out what's great about the Sainsbury Lab in my blog post here.

The science behind conservation:  caring for museum collections

Fitzwilliam Museum.  Free talk and tour. Fri, 15 March, 2-4 pm.Pre-book here.

Peek behind the scenes of the Fitz and find out about conserving artefacts, saving them from the effects of daily life, from sunlight to pests.

Imagination: the door to identity

Anatomy Lecture Theatre, Downing Site, Downing Street. Free talk.  Sat, 16 March, 11 am-12 pm.

Behavioural psychologist Nicky Clayton and artist Clive Wilkins explore the nature of imagination.  Read details on a previous version of this talk.

Source:  Festival brochure cover.  Detail.

St John's College and the physical sciences

St John's College, St John's St, Old Library.  Free exhibition. Sat, 16 March, 11 am - 4.30 pm.Pre-book here.

An exhibition of college members to science but the main arty reason for visiting is the chance to wander around the Old Library (opened in 1628), admire its Jacobean Gothic architecture and its Victorian stained-glass windows.

My life as a dinosaur fanatic

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Downing St.  Free talk. Thurs, 21 March, 6.30-7.30 pm. Private view of artwork from 6 pm. Pre-book here.

The internationally renowned palaeoartist Bob Nicholls talks about his life as a professional dinosaur artist and fanatic.  

Leviathan (Jurassic), © Bob Nicholls.  Source:  http://www.paleocreations.com/imagePage.php?id=6

Malaria: perspectives from art, science and  history

St John's College, St John's St, Castlereagh Room.  Free talk. Fri, 22 March, 7.30-8.30 pm. Pre-book here.

Artist Deborah Robinson explores the world of malaria research at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.  Speakers from the arts, genetics research and medical history discuss their experiences of malaria.

Poetry in the museum

Step inside

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA), Downing St.  Free poetry performance. Tues, 19 March, 7.30-8.30 pm. Pre-book here.

Poets-in-residence Daljit Nagra (MAA), Ann Gray (Botanic Garden) and Jo Shapcott (Polar Museum) present highlights of their work, inspired by Cambridge museums and collections.

Click on their names to read a poem by each.

Films beyond the movie theatre

Travelling Salesman

Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Wilberforce Rd. Screening. £5.50. Thurs, 14 March, 6.30-8.15 pm. Pre-book here.

See the award-winning indie film Travelling Salesman about four brilliant mathematicians.

Arctic film week: voices from the north

Cambridge Arts Picturehouse (in partnership with the Cambridge Film Trust and the Polar Museum). Screenings. 17-24 March. Pre-book here.

A series of films by and about the Arctic Inuit of Canada.

The illustrations for the Festival brochure and website are by Tim Parker who graduated from the Cambridge School of Art last year.  Click here to visit Tim's tumblr blog.

Read the entire programme of events at the Science Festival website.
All the info above is from the Science Festival brochure (also available at the website).

Have a lovely arty (and 'sciencey') Sunday!

Source: Festival brochure.  Illustration: Tim Parker. 

Permalink: http://artincambridge.blogspot.com/2013/02/university-of-cambridge-science.html