Monday Matticchio - snif snif

Sunday Safari - A Wild Tea Party

Actually, my party looks rather civilized, I'd say...

except maybe for the critters' widespread habit 

of getting inside cozy teapots and teacups

Make time for tea by Helen Dardik at Orange you lucky!

Brecth Evens

Caldo africano by Andrea Rivola

Pawel Pawlak, illustration from Zarafa

Igor Oleynikov

Julianna Swaney aka Ohmycavalier

Claire Coles

Jonas Bergstrand

Cover of Danish Edward Lear book by Ungermann, 

thanks to Rilla Alexander on flickr

Pensando come un pesce by Simone Rea

January 1992 New Yorker cover by Gurbuz Dogan Eksioglu

March Hare by Violeta Lopiz

 Cup o' birdy by Kate Wilson

Bologna finds - Lucho Rodriguez

I first discovered Ediciones Tecolote when they published two of Sebastiano's books in 2005, 

and have since appreciated the innovative and refined production of this Mexican publisher. In 2007 they won

the Bologna New Horizons award with El Libro Negro de los Colores by Rosana Faria and Menena Cottin.

This outstanding book is a wonderful exploration of color through the other senses designed to be experienced

by both children who can see and who can't. The textured illustrations are embossed with black ink on 

black paper, while the evocative texts are printed reversed and in Braille. You can watch a video of the book,

now also available in an English edition, here.

But I digress. In fact, I wanted to talk about one of my favorite Tecolote's artists, Colombian illustrator 

Lucho Rodrìguez. His lovable stylized creatures (Charley Harper definitely comes to mind) are not exactly a new

find for me, since I have owned his Qué Monos for the past three years, but this time I discovered many more. 

Rodriguez began his career in Bogotá as graphic designer with an international advertising agency that 

gave him the opportunity to travel to Europe and New York. Later he opened a graphic studio in Caracas, 

but during the Venezuelan economic crisis he retired from advertising and dedicated himself to drawing animals.

His first children's book Abzoo was followed by more volumes dedicated to the depiction and 

celebration of wildlife, including Animals of Mexico, Birds of Mexico, Beetles and Wild animals, 

which was published last August in the US by Random House.

Bologna finds - Igor Oleynikov

From Emperor's race

One of the booths I regularly visit at the book fair is the Taiwanese Grimm Press.

 Established in 1993, with over 600 volumes to date it has become Taiwan's largest

 children's publisher and has won numerous awards in Bologna and elsewhere.

 Grimm Press specializes in high quality "classic" illustrated books and collaborates 

with many international artists like Yvonne Gilbert, Giuliano Ferri, 

Kestutis Kasparavicius and Eva Montanari.

This time my eye was captured by the lovely, tender pictures in a 2009 volume 

about a bear and a butterfly dreaming of living each other's life. The story was written 

by K.T.Hao and the illustrations were painted by Russian artist Igor Oleynikov. 

Oleynikov lives in Moscow and has worked for animation studios Sojuzmultfilm 

(the same State studio that produced Yuri Norstein's wonderful films) and Christmas Films.

 In 1986 he also started collaborating with publishing companies and magazines, 

and has since illustrated over 25 children's books for various international publishers.

Grimm Press this year is presenting two new titles illustrated by Oleynikov, 

the classic brothers Grimm tale Bremen Town Musicians and the Chinese story 

Magic Paintbrush by Xun Tao Hong.

On the website of his rep, Kidshannon, I found many more 

charming artworks from various unspecified projects.

Safari inside my head

A fun homemade video by Giovanni Rabuffetti aka orestory for Italian singer Jovanotti's song Safari.