Loughborough Ladybird and its book illustrators

So, this week has been hectic, in fact, more than a bit hectic! Early in the week I managed to finish an essay for my local history qualification. I have to admit it was hard work - and that's only the first of 6!! Oh dear!  

On Wednesday evening I went along to a talk by Andy Everitt-Stewart on his life as an illustrator of children's books, including Ladybirds. He explained how he got into illustration, that he'd worked on designs or book illustrations, greetings cards, t-shirts and more! He explained the process of creating an illustration for a book, of the style guides that are used, and the approval process that sometimes has to be gone through!! It was obvious from his talk that he was passionate about his work, although he did admit that he gets bored easily, but that's ok because it means he can be very versatile. One of the things he rather likes doing at the moment is paper engineering, so making pop-up books and the like. He brought quite a lot of samples along, and some of his framed original artwork, as well as some of his engineered paper, so we were very lucky!

     

On Friday I popped into the Charnwood Museum to see the new Harry Potter exhibition that's on. Wow! Jim Kay has created some wonderful interpretations of J.K. Rowling's characters! Like Andy, Jim is keen to encourage youngsters: " ... keep scribbling!, he says. " ... ideas ... are important; the technique will come with practice." He also says: "Sometimes it's the mistakes that make us interesting and different." Some of the best advice Jim got came from a university lecturer who said: "keep trying things outside [your] comfort zone" and he has!! Like Andy, he also admits to getting bored easily: "I also get bored really quickly, so I like to try different things."    

There is much more to the exhibition than I can possibly describe here, but hopefully those few quotes will have whetted your appetite and you find time to visit the exhibition sometime: just remember it closes on 8th January 2017.

When I'd finished in the museum I popped across to the public library where those wonderful Local Studies Volunteers had staged a Ladybird books exhibition, showcasing the work of the illustrators. Earlier in the week I had visited Nuneaton. It happened to be market day and it was lovely to see all the little stalls selling a huge variety of goods. Funnily enough, some of the conversations I heard were so similar to the ones I hear in Loughborough market about dwindling trade and increasing rent. So as well as visiting the market, I also had a good look around the museum, which houses a display room dedicated to George Eliot the novelist. They also have a space for temporary exhibitions, so imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon the work of David Kearney: beautiful little landscapes - and a couple of book covers, including some for Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries and those for the Three Billy Goats Gruff, Ladybird edition!

Anyway, back to our own Ladybird exhibition! As I said, this exhibition focuses on the illustrators of the books, and to accompany the books on display, there are bibliographies, being a catalogue not only of the books each of the artists illustrated, but also a list of all the other books they illustrated, that the local studies folk could identify. This really is a lovely exhibition which is well worth a visit, but hurry, as it's only on until 29th November!

So, that's been my week! Next week I'm expecting a slightly less frenetic week!

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:

Dyer, Lynne (2016). Loughborough Ladybird and its book illustrators. [Online] Available from: http://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2016/10/loughborough-ladybird-and-its-book.html 

[Accessed 23 October 2016]

Loogabarooga Festival!

It has never been my intention through this blog to favour anything in particular other than events that promote the exciting town in which we live! So, my initial posts focussed on impressing upon you why Loughborough was not a "rubbish" town, and this was followed by descriptions and photographs of the town's successful In Bloom entries.

Today I'd like to remind you about the forthcoming Loogabarooga Festival, a festival which is a celebration of illustrated children's literature. And the reason it's being held in Loughborough, is, of course, because of our association with Ladybird Books. The history of Ladybird Books can be found on the internet, in books, in newspapers and in articles, but briefly, Wills and Hepworth (as they were at the time of printing of the first Ladybird Books) were originally based, I believe, in Market Street and produced trade and street directories. The first books in the Ladybird series were in 1914, when the company were based in Angel Yard. The trademark ladybird was registered in 1915, but more books in the series were not published until during the Second World War when other publishing work dried up. In about 1971 the company moved to the Beeches Road, and in 1972 the company became part of the Pearson Group. In the 1990s Ladybird became part of the Penguin Group and production at Loughborough stopped, although the books are still published today.

The factory on Beeches Road, once home to Ladybird Books, is now home to a wallpaper and fabrics company.

The Loogabarooga Festival has been timed to coincide with the 100 year anniversary of the creation of the first books in the Ladybird series, and features a whole host of events spread over the latter half of Leicestershire Schools' half-term, and the beginning of half-term for schools in most of the rest of the country. Festival leaflets and brochures are available in many shops and tourist places, and include details of the whole festival.

The range of events is wide and includes talks, book signings, many creative opportunities (like painting, pottery), and theatre performances. There are also a number of events taking place with a focus on schools, so a ladybird march, an author talk and a local illustrator will hold a workshop.

Local businesses are also offering a range of special deals, and there's a treasure trail and the chance to win your height in books!!

As if all this weren't enough, there's also a wide range of satellite events, including a fantastic Ladybird exhibition in Charnwood Museum, which runs until 1st November, and a local illustrator is exhibiting in the Queen's Park café.

And have you seen those lovely benches?? Designed in the shape of books, with colourful paintings covering them, benches have sprung up in town! The two I spotted were in Queen's Park, where I think they make taking a rest an exciting experience!

Posters, bunting and adverts are also popping up all over the town! There may have been an air ambulance landing on the bowling green in Queen's Park earlier in the week, but now this is the host of several festival advertisements!

The festival runs from Thursday 22nd October through to Monday 26th October. I think the aim is to make this the first of an annual event, but do pop along to at least one event this year if you can!!

 

 

 

 

  

Children's book illustrator exhibits at Charnwood Museum!

Andy Everitt-Stewart: First solo exhibition at Charnwood Museum

It Started with a Cat

A couple of weeks ago I created a page on my blog for listing musical groups and other artistic people and groups, and as this was limited by my own knowledge, I didn’t include many artists and groups other than musical. So, today I became aware of the illustrator of Eric Hill’s Spot the Dog, Andy Everitt-Stewart, a local artist who was trained at Loughborough College of Art and Design and is currently exhibiting his work at Charnwood Museum. I popped along, and I can honestly say the exhibition is well worth a visit if you have time to between now and the beginning of January. If you do go before Christmas, you may even be able to pick up that last-minute present!

On his webpage Andy describes himself as a “freelance illustrator and paper engineer”, and his exhibition doesn’t disappoint! Illustrations from books, including Spot the Dog, some Ladybird books, and an updated Peter Rabbit, adorn the walls of the exhibition room, and some examples of some very elaborate pop-up books, sit in the display cabinets, almost coming to life in the mind’s eye.

Against the white backdrop, everything is so colourful and each picture stands out, and because they are mostly illustrations for children’s books, they look so appealing – even, or is that, especially to adults! Several of the works were produced for Ladybird Books, some for Spot the Dog, others for books in the Beatrix Potter series, and others for a variety of publishers.

The pop-up books on display in the cases deserve a special mention for being so intricate and elaborate. You can see the planning stage too, where models are made with plain white paper before being transferred to the real thing. I’m sure we’ve all enjoyed pop-up books when we were children, but the planning involved in producing one would probably have passed us by!

Anyway, my pictures of the exhibition are not as good as the one’s on Andy’s website, but here are a few to whet your appetite: