books, books, books and baskin

The past week has been one of sun, spring and books. I'm still down here on the cape and have had the opportunity to visit some great bookstores. As I had hoped in one of my previous posts, I did in fact procure a copy of The Owl Papers illustrated by Leonard Baskin.


I also found (!) a copy of the Graphic Work of Leonard Baskin,



and a copy of the Auguries of Innocence by William Blake, illustrated by Baskin. (It also happens to be an advanced reading copy from 1968!


I also found some other interesting children's books like The Shy Little Girl illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman


and Zoo by Bruno Munari.


wow, I just noticed that the little girl and the giraffe kind of look the same.

***

Also I have been looking at herring,


playing with Boomer,



and working on a commission as well as preparing for Somerville Open Studios this weekend. More on that later!!!

work? what?

I am on the cape where I am lying around with a fat dog and scary cat and I'm trying to convince myself to get back to work. I have a lot of stuff to get done, but somehow it becomes more difficult with the beautiful weather, screaming birds and lazy animals surrounding me. argh...

Meet Sarah

Just a little sneak of what I've been working on...

More later.

The obsession continues...

Brian brought me another one for my collection the other night. Baskin certainly loved birds, especially crows. I bet he painted hundreds of crows over his lifetime. Baskin and Ted Hughes were buddies since the very beginning of Hughes career, therefore Baskin illustrated most of the early editions of his books. This is one of them.

Soon I hope to also own a book about owls illustrated by Baskin. Soon I will have no more room in my house for books on owls illustrated by Baskin. Soon I will have no more money for books on owls illustrated by Baskin. Soon this blog will be called "I love Leonard Baskin."

Seriously

I'm beginning to think their might be too many books around here...



I'm not kidding. These photos only show about a quarter of them. I think there's a new ceiling height bookshelf on the horizon...

Spring in the livingroom

Two more commissions on the desk right now. Another one of two munchkins. I haven't started sketching for it yet, but I think it's going to be a lot of fun because their mother wants a very casual portrait of them in their little wild garden. So, basically like something I would do anyway.

Also I'm illustrating a classic Romanian poem that hasn't even been translated into English. I know the gist of it, but it's kind of weird and fun to be printing words I don't understand. This one I'm doing as a series of small lithographs, so it's taking a little longer than usual. I've been plugging away at preparing the plates for a week and a half now. Hopefully the results will be worth it.

doo dee doo dee doo.

Oh and this is the thing that has been keeping me going for the past few days.

Country Woman

Spent all day on Saturday streamlining my website. This is an etching I printed last week. It is now the first thing you see when you go to my website. I might go back and paint her skirt but I'm pretty into it this way as well.

I came to the realization that I feel most awesome when I am working in my little etching studio. Go me.