The Grand Tour: 8

This is the first of The Grand Tour collages to take a different approach. It juxtaposes the carefree, fashionable women of a Peterson's Magazine fashion plate with images of (from left) Russian, Swedish, Chinese and Tibetan women whose lives are markedly different. The engravings - from "Circling The Globe In Stories of Travel" - are contemporary to the fashion plate, heightening the disparity. There also is a voyeuristic quality - as in almost all travel - to the women gazing from behind a fence. 11.5 " x 8.25 on cloth-covered art text book cover, hung with a velvet ribbon.

On the Wings of Summer

This is another of the seasonal collages in the long-format series (to view the other one: click here) and it includes antique endpaper, the faded cover of a vintage Little Blue Book, an embroidery pattern courtesy of Godey's Lady's Book, an illustration from the 1905 Prang art education manual for children I'm so fond of and butterflies cut from "The Butterfly Book" by W.J. Holland (Doubleday, Page & Co., 1902), which I nabbed at the public library's annual used book sale.

The series is at the framer's being matting. After finishing, I realized they wouldn't fit pre-cut mats. Yep, another lesson learned. They will float on the backing board with space between the collage and the mat opening. This way, they can be viewed to the edge, which is critical on these. 4.5" x 11.5" on canvas. (Sold)

The Grand Tour: 12

This is among my favorites in The Grand Tour series, because it led to the rediscovery of a magnificent 1896 book in my archive: "Circling The Globe In Stories of Travel." It is full of terrific engravings of sites and people, and is the source of the Egypt and Venice illustrations here. The women are from an October issue of Peterson's Magazine but not sure what year (it was a torn engraving). The lithographed flags behind the trio came via a beautiful 1880s guide to world flags published in the Netherlands by Tresling & Co.  5.5" x 8.5" on archival mat board. {Sold}

A Child's Garden of Verses

I've been scanning in images from Robert Louis Stevenson's timeless "A Child's Garden of Verses" and these two struck me as relevant, given the big, late winter rainstorms we've been experiencing. The delightful illustrations are by Margaret Campbell Hoopes and are from a 1921 edition of the book published by the Henry Altemus Co. of Philadelphia. The poems were written by Stevenson for his children and are a favorite in our family. This edition belonged to my late mother-in-law but we have plenty of others. I'm trying to find a good source to link to for more info on the illustrator and publisher, and will add them when I do. So far, it's been passing mentions of them.

California Dreamin'

Is it just me or do the woman and children in the engraving appear not too thrilled? Their facial expressions are what launched me on a path of altering Victorian illustrations. "Bet they wish they were at the beach," was my first thought when I came across the illustration. So, why not add the beach? In this case, it came in the form of a recycled book publisher catalog cover. I colored their cheeks a rosy hue and added snow as scattered dots and large circles of acrylic paint.

I learned a valuable lesson after finishing: a map should be relevant to a narrative piece, not added for the sake of composition. Found that out when I made this into a card for friends Jon & Carol Falk, who took my husband and me on a fantastic trip to Napa Valley last fall. Carol, a former teacher, just happened to mention that she looked closely at the map, expecting to see California. Ouch. Lesson learned. 5" x 5" on acid-free watercolor paper.