Time to Fly

Otto Nielsen was a Danish painter and watercolorist who worked as an illustrator for books, magazines and posters.

From 1954 to 1976 he also produced a series of beautiful travel posters and calendars for Scandinavian Airlines System,

a company founded in 1946 with the merge of four Scandinavian companies from Sweden, Norway and Denmark. 

Its first destination was New York, then Bangkok and Buenos Aires, and in 1954 
SAS became the first airline to operate a trans-polar route. 

Animal Acrobatics

Alice Potter, Harry on Ball

Dorothy Lathrop, The Fairy Circus, 1931

Alice and Martin Provensen, The Golden Circus, 1950

Jerzy Flisak, movie poster, 1965

Carlos Marchiori, Sally Go Round the Sun, 1969, 

via my vintage book collection (in blog form)

Bill Charmatz, The Cat's Whiskers, 1969

William Pène du Bois, Bear Circus, 1971

Bill Peet

The 1975 Childcraft Anual, thanks to Flamenconut

Nicole Claveloux, Animaux étranges, 1993

Ian Falconer, Olivia saves the Circus

Ofra Amit

Kevin Sloan

Julian de Narvaez

Gonçalo Viana

Spider

Yusuke Yonezu

Jennifer Davis

Chamo

Séverin Millet

Fun with Appliances

Peter Gut is a Swiss typographer, illustrator and caricaturist based in Winterthur. 

He has collaborated for years with the weekly magazine Facts, and today works for Weltwoche,

the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and the business magazine Bilanz. Gut also designs book covers and

 has illustrated the children's book Der Bär auf dem Försterball. I recently discovered his work

thanks to my daughter Michelle, who bought me the postcard above. His surreal and whimsical humour

 and artistic style are in a similar vein to the great Michael Sowa, who I haven't posted so far 

only because he's already quite famous, and Roberto Perini. These pictures are part of the book

Tierisch unter Strom, which explores a series of funny and creative interactions 

between different animals and various appliances and machines.

 You can also find them as postcards via Incognito.

Happy Clays

I am usually pretty picky when it comes to ceramic animal figurines, but if I had the means

I would love to collect the entire production of Swedish ceramic artist Lisa Larson.

All these creatures would make very happy companions to my (or any) home...

Lisa Larson was born in 1931 in Härlunda in southern Sweden. In the early 1950s 

she studied at the College of Crafts and Design in Gothenburg, and in 1953 was hired 

by the established porcelain manufacture Gustavsberg. There, she had the great opportunity

 to work under the famous Swedish ceramic artist Stig Lindberg, who discovered and nourished

 her unique talent. During her 27 years at Gustavsberg Larson created hundreds of different designs.

The very first collection of Lisa’s figures to be put into production in 1955 was Lilla Zoo. 

While Larson designed various ceramic wares, she became famous thanks to her wonderful

 animal figurines. Her creatures, both domestic and exotic, were immensely popular with the public, 

and during the 1960s and 70s she was an important PR personality for Gustavsberg.

Zebra from Stora Zoo, 1958

A cow, a donkey and a bulldog expanded the Stora Zoo collection in 1960

Tiger from the 1959 Afrika Series

Rhino from the 1966 Maanageri series

Camel from the 1971 Jura series

Shin-tzu from the 1972 Kennel series

Lisa's animal portaits are always very stylized and while most are playfully caricatured with exaggerated features,

some of her creatures, like the ones in the Skansen series, display a moving vulnerability.

 The purpose of the 1978 Skansen series was to celebrate the northern animals 

and raise awareness of the need to protect them. 

This European Bison is one of a series of animals threatened by extinction produced in 1978

 by Gustavsberg for the World Wildlife Fund and the Swedish department store Nordiska Kompaniet.

Penguins from the 1979 Noah's Ark series

In 1981 Larson left Gustavsberg to work freelance as a sculptural artist and designer 

for various Swedish companies and the German porcelain manufacturer Rosenthal.

Moses by Gustavsberg Ceramic Studio 

In 1992 she founded the Gustavsberg Ceramic Studio with her colleagues Franco Nicolosi and Siv Solin. 

Their ceramics are produced on a small scale by a team of master craftsmen and women   

who carry on the traditional crafts of mold making, glazing and hand painting. 

Lisa Larson is still actively working on creating and producing new ceramic designs, 

while her body of work is being discovered and rediscovered by many outside 

her native country, and sought after by antique dealers and collectors.