Tapestry by Brian Froud

Brian Froud was supposed to be receiving a lifetime achievement award from the society of illustrators but somehow this rumour never actually materialised and everyone seems at a loss as to why it was floated and then didn’t happen.  It is hard to believe that anyone could conceive of the possibility that Brian Froud is not worthy of such an award.  If anything, it is long overdue since he had already produced a lifetime’s brilliant work years ago!  Brian Froud must now be well into a third or fourth lifetime of work in comparison to many newcomers. Perhaps a triple lifetime achievement award would be more appropriate.  After all, Brian Froud is not an artist who climbed on the bandwagon of faery art, he was one of the very few pushing it uphill at the beginning!  Brian Froud’s work dates way back into the early days of fantasy art - far further back than Brian Froud himself probably wishes to remember!  Along with his colleague Alan Lee, Brian Froud set the standard for technical excellence as well as realism, imagination and vision in bringing fantasy ideas to life.

Whether Brian Froud actually IS an illustrator is of course another issue and maybe that was the problem.  Perhaps they recognised that Brian Froud is more a painter than an illustrator.  For the most part Brian Froud has not illustrated books other than his own and certainly in recent years the number of Brian Froud books has grown considerably.  But if film design work is illustrative then Brian Froud’s work on ‘The Dark Crystal’ alone is worth a lifetime achievement award.

Brian Froud has always trod his own path and openly acknowledges his admiration of Arthur Rackham whose work inspired his early efforts.  The world of faerie is probably more due a lifetime achievement award in his opinion since Brian Froud’s work has always been by the inspiration of the faerie folk, however you conceive that to be.  Brian Froud himself doesn’t actually profess to know faerie because he is happy enough to bathe in its mystery … or at least that is how it always seemed to me.

For someone so influenced by faerie that they sometimes pop up even when he is signing his name Brian Froud  actually isn’t away with the faeries.  If you read a Brian Froud book you’ll find it refreshingly down-to-earth in many ways.  Although the Pagans, New Age people and others love Brian Froud’s work he is somehow somewhere else and does not seem really close to any of these groups or genres.  There is certainly magic in Brian Froud’s artwork though and maybe it is that kind of magic that the world is lacking right now.  Let’s hope he continues to bring the realm of faerie out into his paintings for many years to come as he starts on producing the work of a fifth lifetime!

If you are not that familiar with Brian Froud and want to see more, just click on Brian Froud’s Tapestry or here and away you’ll be whisked away … as if by magic!

Nic’s Green Man graphic novel based on Playmobil in English, German and French is going great guns.  If you’re still short of an interesting and unusual Christmas present you might want to pick up a copy on his website here or on Amazon.  You’ll find a previous post here if you run a search for ‘Green Man’ or you can read a review of it here.

Ed Org will be at the following shows:

Waterfall by MC Escher

MC Escher was an amazing Dutch artist whose surreal art prints like the impossible Waterfall shown here still dumbfound people as was undoubtedly Escher’s intention.  MC Escher challenges the way we look at the world and the way our sense of sight works.  Just glance at any Escher art print or poster and it hits you as he shows how the perspective can be manipulated to trick you into thinking we are seeing something you are not seeing.  Even when you look closely at MC Escher’s art it can be hard to see how it all works.  How did MC Escher manage to make it look like the waterfall is perpetual?  How does it end up where it started defying all the logic of our perceptions?  MC Escher was an extraordinary Dutch artist with a keen interest in geometry.  MC Escher produced many surreal visual puzzles and some of these Escher puzzles were used for album cover art like Reptiles for the Mott the Hoople album.  MC Escher’s work, has never really dated and an MC Escher impossible puzzle looks as freash today as it did back when he drew them.

A guest in your home seeing Escher’s endless waterfall is going to be drawn to comment.  If you’d like to see our range of MC Escher prints and posters then just click here where there are plenty of different Escher products to chose from either for yourself or to give someone else a slice of Escher mind-bending!