2017 Poetry Friday Archive

It’s fun imagining collage artist, designer and illustrator Clover Robin creating another stunning piece in her Greenwich, London home. With her cat Winnie as companion and muse, she indulges her love of nature and all things botanical “inspired by a childhood of woodland walks and countryside rambles.”

Clover grew up in Devon and studied at Leeds College of Art and Design and Central Saint Martins. Home studio aside, she particularly enjoys being on location:

I’m pretty much at my happiest when I’m working in my sketchbook and looking directly at the scene or subject I’m creating.

She recently traveled up and down the west coast of America, documenting the beautiful vistas she viewed from the passenger side of the front seat. Where most artists would do pencil or ink sketches in their notebooks, Clover collaged as she went. Pretty amazing!

She hopes to tour the Nordic countries on her next road trip. 🙂

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fanciful beauty: caitlin mcgauley’s watercolor paintings

October 3, 2017October 2, 2017 ~ jama ~ 20 Comments

If you’re a fan of fashion and/or interior design you may have seen some of Caitlin McGauley’s work in the pages of Vogue, Better Homes and Gardens, or Elle Decor.

The bright, bold colors and whimsical details in her watercolors are hard to miss. Whether she’s painting a pretty interior, a spray of flowers, a lovely table setting, or a pastry shop, there’s a distinctive charm and élan that I find irresistible.

It’s fun to see the interesting characters, city scenes, and everyday objects that bear her cheery, chic and uplifting style. I am reminded of Emma Block and Maira Kalman with a touch of Raoul Dufy. A breath of fresh air!

Caitlin studied at the Syracuse University College of Visual and Performing Arts, first majoring in illustration before switching to advertising. She experimented with a variety of mediums before discovering her love of watercolor via a “paint every day” project on her blog.

After college, she started working for Ralph Lauren Home as a textile designer, then went on to pursue freelance projects.

As the story goes, years ago Caitlin happened to comment on the Lonny magazine blog, which prompted the editor to visit Caitlin’s illustration blog. The editor liked Caitlin’s watercolors, so she asked her to do a weekly series for Lonny called Watercolor Wednesday. This led to a commission with Kate Spade, New York, and Caitlin hasn’t looked back since.

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ooh la-la giveaway winners!

September 21, 2017 ~ jama

Monsieur Random Integer Generator has just handed me the names of three lucky Alphabet Soup readers who have won picture books in our recent giveaways. 🙂

M. Generator is in top form this week, having just returned from a three month cruise around the world. He had a ~~whopping good~~ fine time being his usual ever reliable, erudite, dapper, connoisseur self, stopping in the Land of Fairy Tales, South Korea, and Egypt, where he devoured 542 pumpkin pies, 1,254 kimchi pancakes, and 384 bowls of kushari. He was especially enamored with the fresh kraken sushi he was served during a side trip to Oslo.

He was happy to be picking three winners this time around, and wanted me to remind everyone that he is always open to bribes (mostly notably cases of champagne, free yoga classes, and a complete set of Jacques Pépin cookbooks).

Without further doodle-ee-doo, the winners are:

for NO KIMCHI FOR ME! by Aram Kim:

⇒ 🇰🇷 Sylvia Dodge 🍚 ⇐

for A COOKED-UP FAIRY TALE by Penny Parker Klostermann and Ben Mantle:

⇒ 🍎 Tina Hoggatt 👠 ⇐

and for FLASHLIGHT NIGHT by Matt Forrest Esenwine and Fred Koehler:

⇒ 🔦 Linda Mitchell!! 🔦⇐

WooHoo!!

👏 🎉 CONGRATULATIONS SYLVIA, TINA, AND LINDA!! 🎉 👏

Please contact me (readermail (at) jamakimrattigan (dot) com) with your snail mail addresses so we can get your books out to you lickety split.

Thanks to everyone for entering. Have no fear, we will have more giveaways soon. 🙂

Meanwhile, you’d be wise to follow M. Generator’s advice: