John Shelley's Blog, page 10

John Shelley Exhibition at NNUH

This past month has been very hectic, not only with illustration work, but also setting up another major exhibition, a career retrospective at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.


The exhibition came about immediately after my return from Tokyo. The hospital Arts Project at NNUH was running a series of workshops for children "Supernatural Garden" run by visiting artists from the University of Tsukuba in Japan, headed by Professor Yasuyoshi Saito and Dr Herb Fondevilla. I'd met Herb some years before in Tokyo, the hospital was very keen to link an exhibition of my children's book illustrations (especially those published in Japan) with the workshops.

The central corridor is a busy thoroughfare through the hospital, used by staff,
patients and visitors. I hope that the illustrations offer a brief imaginative escape
from what can be for many a very traumatic experience. The Boat in the Tree (2007, Front Street)
Emma Jarvis, Hospital Arts Co-ordinator, says: “Our colleagues in Japan take a different approach to art and John is a great example of bridging the gap between the two cultures, allowing East to meet West. The illustrations will allow patient, staff and visitors to be reminded of their childhood, looking at detailed illustrations of well-known stories and provide something that everyone can enjoy no matter of their age or gender. The exhibition is a great and very rare opportunity to explore another world through an internationally recognised and award winning artist’s work who lives right on our doorstep, making it the perfect partnership.”

Two of the 4 volumes of Hans Christian Andersen Tales
(Hyoronsha 2004-5). Various exhibition pieces, and illustrations for novels (Hawaiian Big Daddy 2003,  
The Deptford Mice 2005)There are over 140 pieces of artwork on display, in 11 large wall mounted display cabinets dotted along the length of the hospital central corridor. The majority of work is children's book illustration, covering almost 30 years of my career, from my first trade picturebook The Secret in the Matchbox (Andre Deutsch/ Farrar, Straus & Giroux 1989) to my very latest Stone Giant (Charlesbridge, 2014).
From The Secret in the Matchbox (Andre Deutsch / FS&G 1987),
passing through two prints for Disney Japan to The Cobbler and the Elves
(Oki-na Pocket magazine, Fukuinkan Shoten 2007)
Stone Giant (Charlesbridge, 2014) - These are facsimile inkjet prints, as the
artwork is still in Japan
Artwork from other books on show include Peer Gynt (1990),  12 no Tsuki-tachi (The Month Brothers ) (1991), Cinderella (1994), Hoppy no Atarashii Uchi (1995), The Magic Umbrella (1999), King Smelly Feet (2002), Hawaiian Big Daddy (2003), The Deptford Mice (2004), my Hans Christian Andersen series (2004-5), Charlie Bone series (2006-7), The Boat in the Tree (2007), The House of the World (2008), Halloween Forest (2012), and Jack & the Beanstalk (2012). Also a number of independent works from exhibitions and other projects. So, this is quite a big show, with examples from the whole gamut of my career in children's publishing.

The Charlie Bone novels (Tokuma Shoten 2006-7), and work for a WWF tie-up
exhibition  Denizens  (1990)
King Smelly Feet (Andersen Press, 2002), and Hoppy no Atarashii Uchi
(Hoppy's New House) (Fukuinkan Shoten 1995)Much of the work on show has only been published overseas and is displayed for the first time to the public in the UK. All the works are for sale, either as originals (in the case of stand-alone pieces) or inkjet prints (for book illustrations). The show will run until May 2015, so if you're in the area over the next six months and have a chance to visit the hospital do take a look.

Cinderella (Hikari no Kuni 1995), and Peer Gynt (Hyoronsha 1990) 12 no Tsuki-tachi (The Month Brothers) (Miki House, 1991) The House of the World (a subscription-only picture book for Benesse, 2008)
and The Magic Umberella (Fukuinkan Shoten, 1999)The Hospital Arts Project at NNUH works on diverse projects with the community, interior design, site specific arts, performances, workshops, exhibitions, events, gardens and more. It's funded by grants from organisations and charitable donations. For more information visit www.nnuh.nhs.uk/arts

Halloween Forest (Holiday House, 2012) Jack & the Beanstalk (Fukuinkan Shoten, 2012)My deepest thanks to everyone behind the show, especially Herb Fondevilla (Tsukuba University), Emma Jarvis (curator, Hospital Arts Project), Richard Drew (Director of Arts in Hospitals), Eloise O'Hare (Norwich Dandies) and Natsue Hayward (Centre of Japanese Studies, UEA).

Tokyo Sketchbook Part 2

Here are some more pages from my sketchbook in Tokyo this summer. I already posted this selection on Facebook, so apologies to my friends who've already seen them!

 
 

Tokyo Sketchbook Part 1

Over the summer in Tokyo I filled a sketchbook with pen drawings. I always sketch a lot when I'm in Japan, but it was particularly so on this trip, perhaps I was driven by the shear joy of being back in the city, it was as if something had been unlocked.

Some of these drawings were the kind of fantasy ideas and escapist shenanigans I regularly doodle. One or two were observed sketches inside restaurants...

Gonpachi Soba-ya, Azamino, Yokohama. 3rd Aug But a very large number were observed drawings of people on trains, especially the Denentoshi line, which runs from Chuo-Rinkan through the northern Yokohama suburbs, across the Tama river into Shibuya, from where it continues through the middle of Tokyo as the Hanzomon line.



It's a long, snaking line and very busy, on the evening trains out of Tokyo to the suburbs its very difficult to find a seat nowadays, even outside the peak times. Compared to a few years ago the passenger dip between the rush hour and the late trains has become much shallower, there's very little difference between 7pm and 9pm. Waiting for a later train might be fractionally less crowded, but it still doesn't mean you'll be able to sit down.



Thus, many of my sketching chances were on journeys into town at midday, often on the slower local trains.

 Whenever opportunity allowed, I'd commandeer a seat and discretely draw those around me in my small pocket sketchbook. Curiously, despite standing out like a sore thumb as the only non-Japanese on the carriage, few people ever noticed that I was drawing, and I'm pretty certain none of the subjects were ever aware.







I think this is because many commuters simply shut off when they're on the train, they close their eyes in either real or feigned sleep, or fix their gaze on smart phones.



People effectively wrap themselves in their own worlds, oblivious to the rest of what goes on in the carriage. It's a gift of the Japanese commuter to be able to do this, perhaps due to the nature of Tokyo itself - in the neon drenched street of the urban centres so much is going on around, the noise, the flashing kanban, most people develop a selective awareness of the environment around them - they filter out the unwanted "noise" of the city, and thus preserve their sanity.

There is an art to survival in the metropolis - people concern themselves with details that interest them and are able to largely ignore the rest, train journeys can be meditative affairs, and if you want to escape entirely technology provides you with music, game apps or a read.


So I'm able to blithely sketch away on Tokyo trains undisturbed in a way I'd find difficult in the UK, not least because my train journeys in the UK are much rarer, with seat layouts that make it difficult to draw other passengers. Tokyo trains, with seats facing opposite, are the perfect life drawing class.


Another thing I noticed during this trip though, compared to former years - the poses are largely the same. In the past people would read books, talk, or whatever. Now, almost everyone who gets a seat on Tokyo trains does exactly the same thing - they sit, bag on knee, smart phone in hand, headphones in ears, and close their eyes.




My task is to unlock their thoughts and character through a lightning sketch, before they move or are blocked from view. It's one of the exciting things about sketching people on trains, the knowledge that you might only have a few fleeting minutes of opportunity.

Tokyo Exhibition report: In the Shadow of Giants

I've just returned from five heady weeks in Tokyo, soaking up life back in the old metropolis, the place I lived for nearly half my life. Every year daughter and I go back to Japan, usually in the summer, every year we return with new and unique experiences, the only constant being the humidity and the constant murmur of cicadas, though this year there were several unseasonably cool spells amidst the swelter.


It's wonderful to explore familiar locations, see old friends and family, but I also had a very busy schedule of preparation, culminating in a ten day solo exhibition at Space Yui in Aoyama, followed by another seven day show (currently still running as I write) at Yui Garden in Yokohama.

The front porch of Space Yui
No matter how many years go by my fascination with Tokyo remains undiminished, I try to be as busy as I can when we go back, it's a city that demands purpose and direction. As I no longer live in Japan I find that without such direction and with daughter mostly staying with her grandparents I start to feel an emptiness, ponder too deeply on the past and other topics best left alone. No, move on, on, always onwards! Like the city itself, my relationship with Tokyo is constantly evolving, the journey continues.

Hanging day at Space Yui with gallery owner Hideyo Kimura It's On!It's been busy, inspiring and very encouraging. The exhibition, still on at Yui Garden, centres around original artwork from my recent picture book Stone Giant (Ishi no Kyojin in Japanese), from which visitors can order Neograph prints (giclée art prints overprinted with a fine silkscreen to prevent oxidation and deterioration of colour, rendering prints that are virtually indistinguishable from artwork). I also created several smaller pieces of original art specifically for the show.

Book of prints, and artwork from Stone Giant Some of the smaller images created especially for the show
The Librarian Wolves in the ForestThe gallery staff have been supportive beyond measure, Space Yui is a key part of my platform in Japan, the care and encouragement I receive there is inspiriting and progressive, all credit due to Kimura-san and her team.

Opening party, with Komine Shoten editor Tsuyoshi Yamagishi
and author/illustrators Mitsuo Shinozaki, Eriko Ishikawa and Satoshi Kitamura Opening party - with Togo Kasahara (Mikasa Shobo), designer Hiroyasu Murofushi
(I & I Inc) and Takeshi Fujisaki Opening party, with illustrator Satoshi Kitamura (background),
Taiko Nakazawa (Ginza Gallery House), Tomoe Furuhashi and DJ Young RichardThe show at Space Yui began with a busy opening followed by a regular stream of visitors, I was quite overwhelmed by the large number of attendees. Signed copies of the Japanese edition of Stone Giant (Ishi no Kyojin) sold out within the first few days and had to be re-stocked by publisher Komine Shoten.

Signed copies of the Japanese edition Ishi no KyojinThere were several highlight successes, the biggest being news of several competing offers for the Japanese rights to my next US book Crinkle, Crackle, Crack!. Written by Marion Dane Bauer (who also wrote the 2012 released Halloween Forest ), the US edition is due for publication through Holiday House next year. I'll post more about the Japanese edition when details have been confirmed.

With art director Susumu Yamada (Tokyo Planet Design) With members of SCBWI Japan With Emi Noguchi With my daughter and photographer Hitoshi Iwakiri
The exhibition is now on at the fabulous new gallery Yui Garden in Nakamachidai, Yokohama. In a building created by and for an architect's design office that overlooks Seseragi Park, the setting, interior and atmosphere is simply exquisite. If you're in the area before it closes on the 8th please do drop by.

Entrance to Yui Garden The show at Yui GardenIt's been a wonderful summer. Many thanks to all the gallery staff and visitors to the exhibition!

'In the Shadow of Giants' Exhibition at Space Yui

I'm currently in Tokyo again, preparing for my upcoming exhibition at SPACE YUI in Aoyama. The show runs from 21st-30th August, and will be chiefly showing original artwork from my recent picture book Stone Giant (Charlesbridge/Komine Shoten), plus there will be other original artwork on sale, copies of the book, prints and Tshirts. If you're in town please drop by the show! I'll be at the gallery from around 2pm daily.


Space Yui is open 11.00am-19.00pm daily (closed Sunday). Nearest stations are Gaienmae and Omotesando on the Ginza line.

After the close of the show at Space Yui, the exhibition will be re-shown for another week at a new gallery Yui Garden, set in the relaxed environment of Seseragi Park in Nakamachidai, Yokohama. However I'll be on my way back to the UK by then so won't be in the gallery.

Summer Dreaming

Thinking of making a big splash this summer!



  ... here's hoping your summer dreams come true!

NEWS SPLASH!
I'll be in Tokyo from the end of July throughout August, with an exhibition at Aoyama’s Space Yui running from 21st-30th August. Please drop by if you're in town.

 

Big Splash for Summer

It looks to be another hot summer, so here's a splash of cold water - another recent illustration for ANA's inflight magazine Wingspan.

It's to illustrate a piece about the opening of the world's biggest waterslide, the Verruckt in Kansas City in the USA, which was supposed to open in May. The drop is 168 feet, longer than falling of Niagara Falls, at up to 65 mph. Apparently the opening has been twice delayed, but now, finally, is happening, tomorrow!

Sounds exciting? Can't wait to try the jump? Off you go then, I think I'll just watch.  

Tribute to my Dad on Father's Day

I thought I'd take the opportunity of Father's Day to show some of my dad's paintings.


I inherited it all from my father. Though I generally take after my mum, an imaginative and aspirational woman who had a great influence on my development, the nuts and bolts of drawing and painting is all from my dad.

Ken Shelley (after Charles Brooking)Ken was born with a natural ability to paint, but had no opportunity to develop this in the post-war landscape of Birmingham, like many of his generation art school was out of the question, it was straight from school to National Service, then a succession of mechanical jobs in the metropolis. Ken worked tirelessly in often uncomfortable jobs to raise a family, and through that created the carefree space for me to explore my creativity. I was given the chance to pursue art in a way that was entirely denied his generation. I'm incredibly grateful to my parents for that.

Ken Shelley, (after Charles Brooking)In the meantime Ken's own talent was completely suspended until he retired. Suddenly, with time to pursue art for the first time since he was at school, Ken picked up a paintbrush again and started produced a string of oil paintings, mostly focused on his love of the sea and the heritage of the English countryside.


Ken honed his technique producing copies of the great 18th century sea painters, which is a great way to learn. However he's also painted many of his own compositions, most of them covering the walls of his house, rarely seen by anyone. The next time I visit him I'll take some more photos and post some more.


Please do comment with feedback. Ken rarely paints now, few people ever see his work so he needs some encouragement, I'd love to see him pick up a paint brush again.

I own everything to my parents, however where my dad gets his painting abilities from though is much more of a mystery.

Happy Father's Day dad!
 

30 Years on: A Canoe in the Mist

I like anniversaries, especially when they concern my illustrations! So here's another fond memory - this year is the 30th anniversary of the publication of Elsie Locke's A Canoe in the Mist.

Cover of the 1st edition The Waka Wairua. Title Page vignette
This was my third commissioned book contract, after Jeremy Strong's Fatbag (A & C Black) and Roger Collinson's Get Lavinia Goodbody! (Andersen Press), both first released in 1983. Like them, it was a commission for black and white text drawings to a novel. Unlike those titles however, both of which were fun, humorous books requiring comic drawings, this new commission was a dramatised narrative of real events during the catastrophic 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera in New Zealand.

McCrae's Rotomahana Hotel in Te Wairoa. Lillian meets MattieCanoe in the Mist follows the story of two girls during the eruption.  Lillian Perham lives in the village of Te Wairoa with her widowed mother, where western tourists flock to view the famous pink and white terraces, natural stairs of silica pools on Lake Rotomahana. Set in a volcanic wonderland often described as the 8th wonder of the world, Lillian only has chance to see the terraces herself when she befriends Mattie, the daughter of visiting English tourists. But the day they set off for Rotomahana the waters of the lake are mysteriously lifted by a tidal wave, the tohunga sage of the local maori village propheses disaster, and a mysterious ghostly apparition of a canoe, waka wairua, is seen on the lake. 

The Terraces (unused version). This 1/2 page drawing was re-drawn as a full page illustration for the final book (artwork now lost)
That night the volcano violently erupts, followed soon after by fissures underneath the lake that destroy the terraces and turn Lake Rotomahana into an explosion of steam and mud, burying the Maori villages of Moura and Te Ariki, killing 153 people. Caught in a deluge of debris and mud, the girls, parents and villagers struggle to escape a world that has been torn apart.

The first eruptionThe commission came at the very end of 1983 from Jonathan Cape publishers, at that time based in Bedford Square, long before they were absorbed by Random House, I think it was simply a case of showing my work in their office at the right time. It was a fortuitous commission, coming soon after I'd moved to London, I threw myself into sketches straight away.

Character studies for Lillian, Mattie and Sophia (unused) Visit to Hinemihi, the Maori meeting hall This was of course, long before the internet, so finding accurate reference material was going to be a struggle. Despite the book being a historical topic my editor was unable to provide visual references, I knew very little about New Zealand in the 1880's, and despite my suggestion Jonathan Cape wasn't about to fly me out there to do some ground research! However my local library in Crouch End was a tremendous help, especially on information on Maori culture. The publisher also passed on my queries to the author in New Zealand, who after a short while very kindly sent me a package of photos and cuttings outlining the region today and before the earthquake.

Tuhoto, the village sage
What I didn't realise until much later on however, was just how deeply embedded in the background of the book the author was. Elsie Locke (1912-2001), writer, feminist, historian and peace campaigner, is today recognised as one of the most important figures of New Zealand culture of the last century. Although she passed away in 2001, the Elsie Locke Memorial Trust continues to promote her life, work and writings, and sponsors an annual competition for young writers in New Zealand.
Elsie Locke in 1991, courtesy of the Elsie Locke Trust
I was a young struggling illustrator in London, for me New Zealand seemed a very remote and exotic place at the time, and yet the correspondence I exchanged with Elsie not only brought the region to life visually, it helped greatly to spark my imagination.

Before the eruption guests discuss the unusual signs
The drawings were largely crafted at my humble abode in London - this was just before I joined a studio so I was working on the kitchen table in a shared house. One morning in a curious parallel to the book's plot I almost lost everything. I walked into the kitchen and found it awash with water - one of my house mates had run a bath upstairs then completely forgot about it -  the bath overflowed, water poured through the ceiling into the kitchen beneath, the table was drenched, my drawings were soaked. This in itself wasn't quite as much of a disaster as it sounds - indian ink is waterproof after all, but my flatmate had compounded the problem by pinning each wet drawing to the washing line with rusty old clothes pegs, which made horrible indelible brown marks and ripped the sodden paper.

The hotel ablazeSo, many of the drawings were re-drawn from scratch, some of them several times, with time running out I finished the book in the much safer and more comfortable environment of my parent's house in Norwich. But eventually all was done, the artwork was delivered.

Rescuing a surviving horse from the mud
This book was a major watershed for me (excuse the pun!). With the painful experience of my own little disaster in the kitchen flood I was desperate to find somewhere else to work, so straight after completing the artwork for  A Canoe in the Mist I joined with my old friend, designer Andy Royston and co-founded Facade Art Studios in Crouch End, right next to the library that had been so helpful in my research.

Sophia addresses the survivors. This was the finished version intended for the book, but a mix-up led the designer to use an inferior preparatory version instead!
Looking back at the drawings now they're clearly an early work with some rough edges, also there were a couple of slips by the designer too - one drawing was reproduced back-to-front, in the case of another an inferior first version was printed instead of the intended drawing. Were I to illustrate the book again now I'd handle some drawings differently, and I certainly would not have given the art director more than one version of each drawing! But these were learning times, I was just beginning to find my feet as an illustrator, and to this day I'm proud of my involvement with the book, and the writer. A Canoe in the Mist was re-issued by Collins in their Modern Classics series in 2005, though, due to constraints of the series, sadly without any illustrations.

The families struggle through a deluge of mud Survivors
Interestingly, though the Pink and White Terraces were thought to be utterly destroyed and the area left largely uninhabitable, in 2011 parts of the Pink Terraces were re-discovered still in existence, hidden under thick layers of mud.

The final illustration - escape through a devastated landscape
And there lies a strange parallel - I assumed my old drawings for the book had also been lost long ago, but recently was amazed to discover them in my dad's loft, including some sketches and alternative versions that never made it into the final book. So for those who don't know A Canoe in the Mist, or may only have read the unillustrated Collins Classic edition, here they are!

Recent work for Wingspan Magazine

Those who've been following my antics for a while may remember I draw a regular monthly comic illustration for Japanese airline ANA's inflight magazine Wingspan. Here's a recent selection with links to the article themes.

Experiments indicate that carrying a musical instrument makes you sexier
The illustrations accompany short news snippets collected from around the world, unbelievable-but-true nuggets from the obscure depths of journalism, they're always fun to draw because the topics are invariably oddball and sometimes bizarre.

Appenzell New Year Bell Ringers in Switzerland
Report about an exhibition of work by Cholla the Painting Horse
I love to explore visual ideas, so when I receive the brief I send the designer a selection of sketches to choose from. I like to explore fantasy and surrealism, but for this series the stories are often odd enough in themselves they don't need much embellishment, I'm under instructions to play it straight for the most part.


Beard Advertising
The world's only modern day School for Gladiators
Although I work a lot with Photoshop I wouldn't call myself a digital-expert illustrator by any standards, I prefer to hinge my drawings on hand drawn pen lines and keep the pixel-manipulation simple and minimum. One of the most satisfying things about creating these drawings is that they allow me to explore textures and colour schemes within the parameters of my style.



Guinness World Record attempt for Most People Dressed as a Penguin in One Place
Since beginning this series I've learned a lot about the human world, this is indeed a remarkable planet we live on!