Mottisfont, a National Trust property near Romsey, Hampshire is offering a summer of magic, mystery and discovery until 2nd. October. There is an art exhibition which explores the theme of ‘fairytales’. There are 30 original watercolours by Cicely Mary Barker painted to illustrate a series of Children’s books. These were published by Frederick Warne. Warne were Beatrix Potter’s publisher and they used a similar format for Barker’s ‘Flower Fairies.’ TM
There was also a nice drawing by Arthur Rackham he was a prolific illustrator of children’s books –best known in this field for the illustrations he did for an edition of ‘Grimm’s Fairy Tales. CMB’s illustration was taken from the National Trust flier advertising the exhibition – the Nat. Trust logo at top left – gives the game away it’s not part of her original art work!
It’s worth running a Google search on both Barker and Rackham – they’re interesting artists and both worked at a ‘day job’ until they got established. That’s familiar territory for most of us isn’t it?
They both worked in ink, watercolour, and gouache and the linework of both is superb. Worth studying and making a copy.
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