Wishing You All A Very Happy Christmas

It's that time of year again so a nice seasonal image for you. 

It's the cover art from my version of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Wishing a very Happy Christmas to all my readers!

From A Christmas Carol

A few images from my version of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens.  I keep coming back to this story. In my opinion it is unequalled as a Christmas tale.

And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One! 

Happy Christmas Everybody!

Here's a preparatory sketch from my version of Dicken's A Christmas Carol.

I'd like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas time!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog in 2013

Love and best wishes 

PJ 

由PJ美林畫報

Here are a few more.
Greek? Chinese? I'll have to check.
"Oscar Wilde: Stories for Children" is the most translated of all the books I have illustrated.
Perhaps I'll get all the foreign editions together for a blog item.

My Russian Book Covers

Many thanks to my FaceBook friend Maxim Mitrofanov who sent me these Russian covers of some of my books.

I do get sent most of my foreign editions but somehow I don't think I had seen these.

For me the Russian typography adds a beautiful quality of mystery to these covers.

La Cours Des Miracles at the UAC

Tonight sees the opening of a show by the Illustrators Ireland group at the United Arts Club in Dublin.
It starts at 8pm, so pop in if you are in the area.
I helped Brian Gallagher and Eoin Coveney (above) with the hanging.
My piece in the show is this preparatory drawing for an illustration to A Christmas Carol.
A French friend said this one should be called La Cours Des Miracles.

Niamh Sharkey at Hodges Figgis

This time last year I was camped in the window of Hodges Figgis bookstore painting a seven foot canvas of the Ghost of Christmas Present. 
This year it is Laureate na nÓg Niamh Sharkey's turn.
I popped round to lend her a hand, but I think Niamh's lovely painting is nearly finished already.
It is derived from her most seasonal book, Santasaurous

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The Return of "Telling Tall & Tiny Tales"

The folks from the Ark in Temple Bar have asked me to let you know that this painting from A Christmas Carol will be included along with original artwork from Oscar Wilde: Stories for Children and The King of Ireland's Son in the second run of their Telling Tall & Tiny Tales exhibition. There will also be lots of artwork by other Irish illustrators

The exhibition itself is running at The Ark from 29 October, throughout the midterm break week, and every weekend in November.

The Book Show Opening in Paris

And I'm headed back to Paris on Friday for the opening of The Book Show at the Galerie Daniel Maghen, 47 Quai des Grands Augustins.
This painting from A Christmas Carol is in the exhibition.
I can't wait to meet some of the brilliant artists whose work is in the show.

"Illustrating the Fantastic in Life and in Art"

I always liked that image in the previous post, but felt that the grimness of the Spirit was compromised by the cheery household scene that I had to show behind him.
Anyway I couldn't resist tweaking it while I had the image in Photoshop.
As happens so often, simplifying the picture seems to improve it a great deal.

I will be talking about "Illustrating the Fantastic in Life and in Art" at the National Gallery of Ireland on Saturday as part of the Study Morning on Fables and Fairy Tales in Irish Art.
I might well use this picture as a darker example of my work.

"Two Centuries After"

If you are in Bologna this week at the international Book Fair, you might consider visiting the Dickens exhibition, "Two Centuries After", at the beautiful Palazzo Saraceni in the center of the city.
The exhibition is organized by Cooperativa Culturale Giannino Stoppani for BolognaFiere.
I have five pictures in the group show, including a few of the grimmer pictures from A Christmas Carol that I haven't exhibited before.

Dickens Exhibition in Bologna

Happy Birthday Charles Dickens!
OK it was yesterday, but I don't think he'll notice, he's two hundred after all.
This is a picture from the only Dickens book
I have illustrated, A Christmas Carol.
I am just packing the original of this and a bunch of others to send to Bologna for the big Dickens exhibition they are having during the Book Fair this year.
The exhibition is in the Casa Saraceni.
Sorry this post is sort of about Christmas again, but I have selected a very un-Christmassy image.

A Little Christmas Window Movie

Here is a little movie of me at work in the window of Hodges Figgis.
I have transferred this from FaceBook so I hope it will work here.
Happy Christmas everybody.

The Ghost of Christmas Present

I have finally made up a pretty good digital approximation of my big painting of the Ghost of Christmas Present.
The problem was that I could only get my camera three and a half feet away from the canvas and so I had to make this image up from lots of smaller photos pasted together in Photoshop.

The painting in the window was a very strange project to take on, but I really enjoyed the process and I loved meeting all those nice people who stopped by to say hello.
Painting this scene from A Christmas Carol in public was a very good way of getting into the Christmas spirit, and in a purely practical sense, it is good to know that, when pressed, I can finish a seven foot oil painting in less than a week.

Preparing A Large Canvas

Here is a short film of me putting together the canvas for the Hodges Figgis job.
I hadn't made a canvas that big before and it very nearly didn't fit down the stairs from the studio.
I'll post some video of the painting process later.

The Ghost of Christmas Present: Nearly There

MaryBrigid Turner bought me a coffee on Saturday afternoon when the picture was nearly finished, and we talked about the whole business of painting in public, the pros and cons. You can see the interview here at the Inís website
I reckon MB owed me the coffee as she was the one who dreamed up the whole idea of me as artist in residence in Hodges Figgis window.

The Ghost of Christmas Present: Help from the Punters

Here's a link to a story on RTE's News2Day programme about the painting in Hodges Figgis window.
The kids were from Griffeen Valley Educate Together School, and they had some great ideas that I was able to include in the finished painting.
I finished up yesterday and the picture will stay in the window till Christmas.
It's strange that it is all done now.
I was getting quite used to always having an audience behind me.
It was the weirdest week ever, but I really enjoyed it, and I got a heck of a lot of work done.
Many thanks to Conor, MaryBrigid, Stephen, Liam and all at Hodges Figgis for their help and hospitality.

The Ghost of Christmas Present: The First Steps

I got a good start on my big Christmas picture last night.
I got the whole thing scaled up on the 7’ by 4’ canvas, and I got a few hours of painting in.
It would be great if I could paint the whole thing in situ in Hodges Figgis bookshop, but there is going to be so much to do that I just have to get a start in the studio.
Also the light in the window is going to be very unpredictable and I will only have a four foot space to step back in, so I want to have my tonal values well established.
I am remembering too that the last picture I did of this size took four months and I am supposed to finish this one on Saturday.
Fingers crossed!

The Ghost of Christmas Present... in Dawson Street, Dublin 2

Here's the rough I have created for the picture I will be painting "live" in the window of Hodges Figgis bookshop in Dublin.
I thought you might be interested to see how I have constructed this from a mixture of mostly drawn elements with a few Photoshop images dropped in.
So much for my idea to have a scene with large expanses of sky that I might be able to fill in quickly.
This is a pretty busy scene and the canvas is seven foot wide........I'm going to be very busy until the weekend.
If you have a copy of my version of A Christmas Carol, you will know that this picture is based on my illustration of the Ghost of Christmas Present.
I always loved the design for that spread but perhaps I painted it a bit too dark or the paper in the book is overly absorbent, but anyway, I was never entirely happy with how it printed.
So I'm taking this chance to have another go.

Some Sketches from "A Christmas Carol"

I've been looking through old studies from my version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol trying to get a suitable design for the seven foot painting I will be doing in Hodges Figgis window next week.

I find the drawings I do as studies have a freshness and immediacy that I can't often keep in the finished paintings.

I must do a book illustrated solely with drawings.