Children's Book Illustrator's Exhibit

Check out the Children’s Book Illustrator’s exhibit at the University of New England Art Gallery in Portland, Maine. Illustrations from many treasured books are displayed. My personal favorite is Barbara Cooney’s painting of Miss Rumphius discovering lupines in the valley.

I loved seeing two Dahlov Ipcar originals, since I just wrote her profile for Women of the Pine Tree State. The colors are much more vivid than those on pages of My Wonderful Christmas Tree. Diane De Groat’s watercolor of Anastasia Krupnik is there along with some Jerry Pinkney Aesop Fable illustrations, including his wonderful red fox cover.

The show includes a Holly Meade watercolor collage and Jane Dyer’s Fish Soup print of a green-scaled grouper in a waiter’s jacket. It’s very special to view these illustrations on the wall. Two more I loved are E.B. Lewis’s art from We Are All the Colors of Freedom and Melissa Sweet’s collage of Audubon’s collection in The Boy Who Drew Birds.

Twenty-eight artists are represented and author Lois Lowry is speaking at the gallery on September 6.

Poetry Friday

Last week I enjoyed a day at the Maine beach of my childhood with my granddaughter and niece. The sky was gorgeous, the sand hot and the waves crashed and thundered. I was surprised that the water was merely chilly instead of the numbing cold I remembered.

Here’s a poem inspired by watching the girls bob in the swells and body surf.

Water Sprite

You twirl and dip and sing
your song while the water
cradles your arms, your legs
like before your birth when
only you could hear your song–
Water Sprite.