C'est la fête!

*

I'm just popping in to wish everyone a happy quatorze juillet... or joyeux Bastille Day, if you prefer:  a nice day off for everybody!

From picnics and an Amorino ice-cream cone...

Pont Neuf

Pont des Arts

Ile Saint Louis

...then to a nice terrasse..

5ème arrondissement, near rue Saint-Jacques

...and finally, dancing under the lanterns at your local Bal des Pompiers

Robert Doisneau, La dernière valse du 14 juillet 

Save the last dance for me!

As for me, I am still here— but between working hard on some projects and getting spirited away for summer activities (many of which involve being under water and getting my hair wet most of the time), I think I will be posting infrequently until autumn arrives.

So Pause Estivale for now... and see you when I get back!

PS. *Top image is a vintage firecracker package, from my personal ephemera archive. 

Beatrice Alemagna

Beatrice Alemagna has a new book out!

Published by Editions Autrement, it is entitled La Gigantesque Petite Chose.

Half poem, half riddle, it is about that enormous but tiny thing* that we all look for in our different ways.

But it's so hard to define. It comes and it goes, it is never where you expect it to be, it is small and fragile and brief and evanescent—and yet looms so large in all our lives.

A very beautiful book.

To mark the occasion, there was a one-woman show of her work at Galerie Autrement— called, of course, La gigantesque petite expo — where she was also present for a book signing.  I went along to the opening.

There were many small pieces and a few larger ones, as well as some objects and a few posters.

There were also these shaped paintings, like the one below. 

Painted on a raw linen canvas, unprimed, unstretched and cut to silhouette, these larger-than-life characters were my favourites!

It was very nice to chat with her for a bit...

...she wrote such a nice dedicace—with a small drawing too! I love it.

Grazie, Beatrice!!

image found on Carnet Imaginaire

PS. Those of you who are in Paris, the show can be seen for another week at Galerie Autrement, 77 rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine, 75011 Paris. They're open Monday through Friday 10:00 to 6:00. (I would call first...)

PPS. Here is a fine little interview with Beatrice, if you want to know more.

*Hint:  The enormous but tiny thing—"Cette petite chose invisible, et gigantesque pourtant, qu'un jour quelqu'un a appelée bonheur..."

11/7/11, LATE-BREAKING UPDATE:  I just came across this video interview with Beatrice (via Anna —grazie!), and I just had to add it to this post.  Very illuminating... enjoy!

Paris and posters

                   

Here's a page from my sketchbook, revisited with the odds and ends that always find their way into my pockets.

These Colonnes Morris—part of the Parisian landscape since the mid-1800's—are advertising pillars originally built to combat rampant advertising and graffiti. Some of them contain telephones and automatic public toilets.  And sometimes—startlingly— they serve as a broom cupboard for street cleaners.

Here's a Colonne Morris (seen from my local café on Fontaine Saint Michel)—also doubles as as hat!)

But most of all, they are adorned with beautiful posters: only those advertising cultural events (films, concerts, theatre, etc) are permitted. With such a steady stream of work (some of it publically funded) and abundant places to display it in, the flowering of French poster art was the inevitable result.  From Toulouse-Lautrec and Alphonse Mucha, to A.M. Cassandre and Raymond Savignac and Hervé Morvan, not to mention André François, Nathan-Garamond and Jean-Michel Folon —they all contributed to the rich visual feast on the streets here.

Newer practitioners you may want to look at:

• Michel Batory (who had a retrospective at Musée des Arts Decoratifs recently)
• The fabulous Zeloot (and much more here)
• Michel Quarez (and here)

In general:

• French posters: a huge collection organized by era (don't miss the ones after World War II...)
• Chaumont: International Poster Festival 
• And further afield: there's the International Poster Bienale, at the Poster Museum in Wilanow, Poland (which is held in June of even-numbered years).

Road trip, anyone?

One more thing...

To finish off these past few posts on Montreuil, I want to give a special mention to my friend Constanze von Kitzing, who was my guest during the Salon... her first time here, but not her last!

Constanze is a children's book illustrator and author from Germany who has not only published several books with a variety of publishers in Europe, but has also been awarded, both at the Bologna Book Fair (where she was a selected illustrator in 2010) and at the CJ Picture Book festival of South Korea.

Here she is at a signing at Montreuil, for La Joie de Lire, the wonderful Swiss maison d'édition who have published many of her books, including her series on the little lion cub:  Cache-cache, C'est moi le meilleur, and Dormez-vous. (Inside images here, here and here ... do look!)

(She signed my copies too — yay!)

(Even Pomelo had his portrait done! Very happy he is with it, too...)

Her most recent picture book— Pingouin glacé (also published by La Joie de Lire)— came out just last month.  It's all about a little penguin who feels a bit chilly and goes off in search of warmth (in all its varieties) — sympathique and clever!

Thanks for everything,  Constanze.  See you soon — a presto!

Salon du Livre, Montreuil — pt. 3

(A still image from "O'Moro", by Eva Offredo and Christophe Calissoni)

In this most recent Salon, a few new features were introduced.  These innovations included the Librairie EUropa (featuring books, authors and illustrators from further afield in the European Union... Eastern Europe's contributions were especially wonderful!) and the AniMix.

The AniMix was a film festival within the Salon — a first in its 26-year history!  Around 35 films were screened: all animated, there were shorts, pilots and feature-length previews.  They all had in common some connection to children's books — either adaptations based on an existing children's book, or originals created by the illustrators themselves.  These included: Kitty Crowther ("Le Banc"), Anne Herbauts ("Jean perdu dans ses pensées"),  Albertine ("La génie de la boîte de raviolis"), Samuel Ribeyron ("Beau Voyage"),  Eva Offredo ("O'Moro"),  Jean-François Martin ("L'Inventeur") and Michèle Lemieux ("Nuit d'Orage").

For me, a few of the memorable and enjoyable films were these:

"O'Moro", by Eva Offredo and Christophe Calissoni

"Beau Voyage", by Samuel Ribeyron

"La Génie de la boîte de raviolis", by Albertine.

"Nuit d'Orage" (also known as Stormy Night), by Michèle Lemieux.  Superlative!

For the full list of films screened at the Salon, see here.

To view some of the films mentioned, here are links to video clips:

O'Moro

La Génie de la Boîte de Raviolis

Nuit d'orage

Enjoy!

Salon du Livre, Montreuil — pt. 2

With so many fantastic and inventive books on display at the Salon, it was hard to choose just a few to show you.  Here are some books — and the illustrators who created them— that stand out in my memory.  It was great to have a chance to meet and chat and peruse!!

L'Ange des Chaussures (Editions Notari, 2009) by Giovanni Zoboli, art by Joanna Concejo.  

Joanna Concejo's work is beautiful, with images in graphite and gouache that are poetic, delicate and startling.  She has illustrated books for many publishing houses all over Europe, such as Topipittori (Italy), Editions Notari (Switzerland), OQO (Spain), Rouergue (France).  I discovered her work a few years ago when I got Grand et Petit (published by Atelier du Poisson Soluble, 2008) — a book about two brothers, one tiny and the other gigantic, which is a great favourite of mine.

 

Her latest book is Les Cygnes Sauvages (aka The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen)— published in Italian by Topipittori and in French by Notari....

...looks intriguing!

Next up is Clotilde Perrin, whose work I have long admired....

 Le Colis Rouge (Rue du Monde, 2007) is a wordless book about a mysterious red parcel.

Educated at Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg, Clotilde Perrin works in a variety of mediums: color pencil, watercolour, gouache and even cut paper —check out the wonderful Patron et Employee (from Didier Jeunesse, 2009). 

And she must have been working around the clock in recent times — six of her books were published in 2010!!  They included: Pedro à 100 à l'heure(Mango); La Farandole des Mots (Nouvel Angle); Tout Autour de Moi (Rue du Monde), and J'ai mis du sable dans mon cartable (Sarbacane)... about a little boy nostalgic for his summers at the beach.

Lucille Placin was at Rue du Monde signing her new book, Le Petit Oulipo, an anthology of wordplay and poetry.

I like her fresh and playful imagery —

—it's no surprise that she's also gotten commissions from Djeco, the fabulous Parisian toymakers!

And at the stand of Bayard Presse, there was Hervé Tullet and Bridget Strevens.

In addition to illustrating children's books and magazines (for Albin Michel, Tourbillon and Bayard, among others), Bridget teaches at Parsons Paris Art School and is very active in SCBWI.

As for Hervé, his lively and interactive books (like Turlututu and Moi c'est Blop) many of which have been translated to English and released in the USA— got a lot of acclaim at the Bologna Book Fair in recent years.

Of course this looooooooooooooong blog post doesn't begin to scratch the surface.... these are only a few of the illustrators I managed to talk with. If you are interested in seeing some of the Salon's prize-winners, check their site!

Salon du Livre, Montreuil — pt. 1

Here, as promised—and only two months late!— is a whirlwind tour of the Salon du Livre at Montreuil, which I attended back in early December.

Entrance:  this image, which could be seen all over Paris in the run-up to the Salon, is by the lovely Charlotte Gastaut.

Here is an overview of the Salon, looking uncharacteristically calm and sedate. 

In reality, it is wall-to-wall people, including eleventy million roaring children, on school trips or family outings, or just hoping to meet their favourite author.  In this aspect, the salon at Montreuil differs from the one at Bologna, which (I'm told) is open only to professionals.

Founded 26 years ago, the Salon has grown in both size and reputation. 

This time, there were about 350 maisons d'éditions present. These publishing houses (large and small) are mainly French (or from francophone countries) — and spread out on three floors. 

As well as selling books, their stands also serve as meeting points for writers, illustrators, editors, art directors and publishers. Some of them are mini-gallery spaces, featuring originals, prints and posters from their illustrators, like the one above from the wonderful publishing house Rue du Monde. And—not least— there are signings and reading, where the authors and artists meet their adoring public face to face!  But more on that in a future post...

                    

If you're an illustrator, you're most likely at the salon to show your work.

There is the infamous Rencontres D.A. (above, left) which can be a bit of a mêlée: 20-25 art directors (in a small space) do their best to see as many hopeful artists as they can at something like 20-minute intervals.  This must be arranged (in writing) long in advance. The alternative is to take your chances and find an art director at the stand (above, right) who will sit down briefly to look at your portfolio and chat with you.

Of course there is more to the salon at Montreuil than publishers' stands.

From art exhibits to workshops and signings, and even a film festival, there's always something to catch your eye and engage your mind—but more on all that in a future post(s)!  All in all, the whole experience is inspiring, exhilarating...and exhausting.  When you come home with the huge pile of catalogues that you will have gathered, you can both prolong the experience and rest your feet! 

Il fait froid, gla gla gla!

I'm back!  

Il fait super froid here in Paris, and there has been so much to see and do lately....  everything from art openings to the Salon du Livre to out-of-town guests—even a funeral in a snow-storm (but that's another story for another time).  

Anyway, I have been running-running-running (and occasionally slipping and falling on the ice), but I will return in the next post and show you some of what I saw.

À bientôt, alors...

Calendar time

It's calendar season!

This image is by Thomas Baas, part of a recent exhibit of calendar illustrations.
Now extremely prized and very hard to come by, these calendars were produced every year for about two decades by Alain Lachartre, an illustrator and graphic designer and founder of the legendary agence-atelier Vue Sur La Ville.

Images are by an all-star cast of illustrators (over 200 of them, all told) including Loustal, Marc Boutavant, Benoit Jacques, Gary Baseman, Pierre Le-Tan and many others.  It was an open assignment with the only condition being that the calendar itself had to be incorporated into the illustration. With wonderful results!

Originally presented last summer at Cité de l'Architecture in Paris, I was able to see it recently at the gallery at Parsons Paris art school.  I look forward to seeing more of the offerings here in the coming season...

Also: Camilla's calendar is now available.  As we all know!

Arche Kinder Kalendar is a gorgeous calendar filled with poetic images resulting from an exhibit organized by Internationale Jugendbiliothek, gathering together 150 of the best illustrated poems for children. They have chosen twelve of them for this calendar  (via Topipittori).

National Public Radio's 2011 calendar has a dream team of illustrators creating images for it, including Matte Stephens, Jeremy Holmes, heads of State, Lab Partners and many more.

The Tolkein calendar has images by Dutch artist Cor Blok, originally created in 1960.  Both modernist and child-like, they are inspired by Blok's take on the Bayeux tapestry and applied to the imaginative universe of J.R.R. Tolkein.

Finally, for those of you who love owls, here is a free downloadable and customizable calendar, featuring artwork (yes, of owls!) from 30 different illustrators.  From My Owl Barn.

Kveta Pacovska, again

Here, as promised, are more images from Kveta Pacovska's exhibit.

This owl is an original from her new book, Couleurs du Jour.

This collage was from a book called A l'Infini (published by Editions Paname in 2007).

Quite a few of her books are on display as well, spanning five decades from the early sixties to the present.  Many of them are exceedingly hard to get a hold of, having only been published in Czechoslovakia (as was). 

They come from private collections such as that of Paris's wonderful children's library, Bibliothèque de l'Heure Joyeuse. Also included are some very rarely seen books published by Albatros, the legendary Czech publisher of children's books.

Below is the cover art for Das Tier mit den Funkelaugen (Beltz & Gelberg, 1990) —about a flying animal with sparkly eyes. Published by Albatros in 1986, the illustrations inside this book are all in black and white.

This 1968 version of Lord of the Flies was published by Pan Much, and all the illustrations are black and white.

The exhibit is still running until 30 October at the Libraires Associés. 

This combination gallery, publisher and bookshop is a veritable paper paradise — ça vaut le détour. And those of you going to the Salon de Livres Jeunesse at Montreuil in December may be able to see Kveta Pacovska in person — rumour has it that she will be speaking and signing.