When I list Katje the Windmill Cat as the fifth book about cats in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, I pause to ponder the different ways in which cats come to life in these stories. Nicola Bayley’s paintings and Clare Turlay Newberry’s drawings are my favorites. I was lucky to discover their art at a library book sale!
In “Windows into Illustration: Nicola Bayley”, Bayley sketches her education, publications, and art. “I used quite fat brushes that went to a fine point so that I wasn’t constantly loading up,” she says about her pictures for The Tyger Voyage. “I would do a light wash over the drawing and then stipple away for hours building up colour and form.” Stipple? Stippling is creating pictures from dots! Ms. Cooper’s Art Class has an introduction to the process. Bayley says paintings “would take between four and six weeks per picture”. I love her work in Katje so I’ve requested The Mousehole Cat and The Necessary Cat from my local library to revel in more of her beautiful illustrations.
I scoop up Marshmallow by Clare Turlay Newberry as a reprint by Scholastic, Inc. The original copyright for this story is 1942. Newberry, like Bayley, is well known for her artwork of cats. Newberry’s work in conte crayon is in sharp contrast to Bayley’s stipple. Yet both artists capture felines precisely. There’s a print of Oliver along with many more drawings of Newberry’s cats and kittens at Artsy. “Babette the Cat” lists for $25,000! The RiverBrink Art Museum’s video “Weir Collection Wednesday: Clare Turlay Newberry” is worth a watch. It’s humorous and informative. What is conte crayon? Art With Ms. Pow has a succinct introduction. “Conte is made with natural pigments”, she explains. She demonstrates only five colors because “conte is meant to have these natural colors.” Ms. Pow helps me imagine Newberry at work. My interlibrary loan network had no books illustrated by Clare Turlay Newberry for me to borrow.
These are two examples of children’s picture books that bring fine art home.
Books Too 
Leave a comment