"The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey" Twentieth Anniversary Edition

It's hard to believe that The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, written by  Susan Wojciechowski, and illustrated by me, is twenty years old.

It has been hugely successful selling more than a million copies in the US alone and has been translated into many different languages. 

The audiobook read by James Earl Jones was nominated for a grammy and there were stage versions and musicals were also created.

In 2007 a movie version was made starring Tom Berenger, Joely Richardson and n one of her earliest roles, Saoirse Ronan.

The book won numerous awards for Susan and for me, including the Kate Greenaway Medal, the Christopher Award and the Bisto Irish Book of the Year Award.

Below you can see some of the different incarnations of The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey.

 

And here is the latest!

I'm really delighted with the new large format edition which celebrates our twentieth anniversary.

Pilgrims, Princesses and Beardy Old Men

The exhibition will be officially opened by Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer. All Welcome.

dlr LexIcon presents an exhibition of original paintings by award-winning Irish artist, PJ Lynch, from the million-selling The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, and classics such as Dickens’ A Christmas Carol right up to the newly published The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower, as well as PJ’s charcoal drawings for Once Upon A Place, a new anthology of stories by top Irish writers compiled by Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer.

If you are in the Dublin area over the Christmas period pop down to Dun Laoghaire's beautiful new LexIcon library to see my exhibition, "Pilgrims, Princesses and Beardy Old Men"

dlr LexIcon presents an exhibition of original paintings by award-winning Irish artist, PJ Lynch, from the million-selling The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, and classics such as Dickens’ A Christmas Carol right up to the newly published The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower, as well as PJ’s charcoal drawings for Once Upon A Place, a new anthology of stories by top Irish writers compiled by Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer. 

The exhibition runs until 30th January.

dlr LexIcon presents an exhibition of original paintings by award-winning Irish artist, PJ Lynch, from the million-selling The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, and classics such as Dickens’ A Christmas Carol right up to the newly published The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower, as well as PJ’s charcoal drawings for Once Upon A Place, a new anthology of stories by top Irish writers compiled by Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer.
- See more at: http://libraries.dlrcoco.ie/events-and-news/library-blog/pilgrims-princesses-and-beardy-old-men-exhibition-featuring-work-pj#sthash.NignjnKO.dpuf

The exhibition will be officially opened by Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer. All Welcome

dlr LexIcon presents an exhibition of original paintings by award-winning Irish artist, PJ Lynch, from the million-selling The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, and classics such as Dickens’ A Christmas Carol right up to the newly published The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower, as well as PJ’s charcoal drawings for Once Upon A Place, a new anthology of stories by top Irish writers compiled by Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer.
- See more at: http://libraries.dlrcoco.ie/events-and-news/library-blog/pilgrims-princesses-and-beardy-old-men-exhibition-featuring-work-pj#sthash.NignjnKO.dpuf

Exhibition: 'Pilgrims, Princesses and Beardy Old Men' curated by PJ Lynch

On Friday 20th November 'Pilgrims, Princesses and Beardy Old Men', an exhibition featuring the work of award-winning Irish artist PJ Lynch, will be launched at 6.30pm in dlr LexIcon, Level 3.
The exhibition will be officially opened by Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer. All Welcome.

dlr LexIcon presents an exhibition of original paintings by award-winning Irish artist, PJ Lynch, from the million-selling The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, and classics such as Dickens’ A Christmas Carol right up to the newly published The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower, as well as PJ’s charcoal drawings for Once Upon A Place, a new anthology of stories by top Irish writers compiled by Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer. P.J. Lynch has worked as a children's book illustrator since leaving Brighton College of Art in England in 1984.
- See more at: http://libraries.dlrcoco.ie/events-and-news/library-blog/pilgrims-princesses-and-beardy-old-men-exhibition-featuring-work-pj#sthash.NignjnKO.dpuf

Exhibition: 'Pilgrims, Princesses and Beardy Old Men' curated by PJ Lynch

On Friday 20th November 'Pilgrims, Princesses and Beardy Old Men', an exhibition featuring the work of award-winning Irish artist PJ Lynch, will be launched at 6.30pm in dlr LexIcon, Level 3.
The exhibition will be officially opened by Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer. All Welcome.

dlr LexIcon presents an exhibition of original paintings by award-winning Irish artist, PJ Lynch, from the million-selling The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, and classics such as Dickens’ A Christmas Carol right up to the newly published The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower, as well as PJ’s charcoal drawings for Once Upon A Place, a new anthology of stories by top Irish writers compiled by Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer. P.J. Lynch has worked as a children's book illustrator since leaving Brighton College of Art in England in 1984.
- See more at: http://libraries.dlrcoco.ie/events-and-news/library-blog/pilgrims-princesses-and-beardy-old-men-exhibition-featuring-work-pj#sthash.NignjnKO.dpuf

Exhibition: 'Pilgrims, Princesses and Beardy Old Men' curated by PJ Lynch

On Friday 20th November 'Pilgrims, Princesses and Beardy Old Men', an exhibition featuring the work of award-winning Irish artist PJ Lynch, will be launched at 6.30pm in dlr LexIcon, Level 3.
The exhibition will be officially opened by Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer. All Welcome.

dlr LexIcon presents an exhibition of original paintings by award-winning Irish artist, PJ Lynch, from the million-selling The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, and classics such as Dickens’ A Christmas Carol right up to the newly published The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower, as well as PJ’s charcoal drawings for Once Upon A Place, a new anthology of stories by top Irish writers compiled by Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer. P.J. Lynch has worked as a children's book illustrator since leaving Brighton College of Art in England in 1984.
- See more at: http://libraries.dlrcoco.ie/events-and-news/library-blog/pilgrims-princesses-and-beardy-old-men-exhibition-featuring-work-pj#sthash.NignjnKO.dpuf

20 Magical Children’s Christmas Books To Read Aloud

It's nice to see "The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey" by Susan Wojciechowski an illustrated buy me in BuzzFeed's top 20 of Magical Children’s Christmas Books To Read Aloud.

Mysterious Traveller Long Listed for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal

I'm delighted to be on the 2014 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal long list for my work on Mysterious Traveller by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham, published by Walker Books.
I was lucky enough to win the Kate Greenaway twice in the 1990s for The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey and for When Jessie Came Across the Sea. 
There are some great illustrators long listed with me but fingers crossed for the shortlist anyway!

Pictiúr Opens at IMMA

These two paintings from The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey are the two of mine that are included in "Pictiúr" which opens at  IMMA - Irish Museum of Modern Art today! 

Pictiúr goes to Europe

Here's a nice little film about Pictiúr, the exhibition of Irish Children's Book Illustrators curated by my good pal Niamh Sharkey, Laureate na nÓg. 
If you look hard you might just see a couple of my pictures from The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey in there somewhere.
The exhibition toured Europe and is now back in Ireland travelling to venues around the country including IMMA over the Christmas period.
The show is running now at Draíocht, Blancharstown and continues there until October 5th.

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.

Pictiúr

CBI have announced that Pictiúr, an exciting new exhibition of the work of some of Ireland’s leading children’s book illustrators and which has been curated by Laureate na nÓg, Niamh Sharkey, will visit four venues in Europe during Ireland’s Presidency of the EU, before returning to Ireland to tour.

I'm delighted to be one of the illustrators involved.
This picture from The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey is one of my originals in the show.

Here's a list of the featured Illustrators:

Lily Bernard              Adrienne Geoghegan            Anita Jeram         Donough O’Malley
Alan Clarke                Olivia Golden                         Chris Judge          Niamh Sharkey
Michael Emberley    Chris Haughton                     P.J. Lynch            Steve Simpson
Tatiana Feeney         Paul Howard                          Oisin McGann      Kevin Waldron
Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick           Oliver Jeffers      Mary Murphy       Olwyn Whelan
Andrew Whitson

Kilkenny Arts Festival Exhibition

I have contributed a few pictures to a group show selected by Lorraine Brett of LB Fine Arts that is taking place at the Lord Bagenal Hotel, Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow as part of Kilkenny Arts Festival.

With a bit of luck I might make it down for the opening on Sunday.

Lorraine has brought together a great selection of artists including some old pals of mine such as Eugene Conway, Ronan Goti, Laura Cronin, Miseon Lee, Jennifer Trouton and Conor Walton.

I'm exhibiting a couple of originals from The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey and the cover painting from The Names Upon the Harp.

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey: The Musical

Did I say there would be no more posts about Christmas?
Sorry, here is the last one, honestly.
Thanks to Marion for sending me this link to a video showing that there was a musical version of The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, at the Provision Theater, Chicago.


This is one of my paintings from the book
and below is a photo from a stage play of the book that showed somewhere in the USA last Christmas.


You'd think they would let me know about these things.
After all I have effectively done their costume, set design and art direction.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner here in Dublin on Sunday ( I know we were early!)
The menu, inspired by a fair amount of Pilgrim research, and with vital contributions from our guests, included savory butternut squash soup, roast turkey of course, sweet potato topped with marsh mallows, various nutty stuffings, venison casserole, followed by pecan pie and various goats' cheeses (the first Pilgrims had no cows).
We did drink wine although the Pilgrims, and their Wampanoag guests would most likely have been downing beer.
Among our thanks-givers were my very dear friends who modelled as Jonathan Toomey and the Widow McDowell, who are now happily married with a lovely daughter. Mrs Toomey makes a mean pecan pie.
My wife Barbara did most of the cooking whilst I opened the wine and, using up two leftover pumpkins, carved a grumpy Wampanoag warrior and a Pilgrim who looks a lot like Guy Fawkes.
May I wish a very happy Thanksgiving to you all, especially to my American friends.

The Wise Woman from Catkin

Here's one of those illustrations that my mother posed for a number of years ago.
She modelled as the Wise woman in Catkin by Antonia Barber which I illustrated in the mid-nineties.
This was a key picture for me in many ways because it showed me I could handle more naturalistic scenes than the fantasy work I had previously done.
It certainly pointed the way towards the work I did on The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
The other models were myself, and Niamh, my girlfriend at the time.

"Home from the Front"

Sorting through my shelves of old work can turn up some surprises.
I did this piece as a sample just after I left art college in Brighton.



I think that this piece, in it's controlled use of colour, and in the watercolour/bodycolour technique prefigures the illustration style I would adopt ten years later when I illustrated The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey.
I like the fact that the narrative is not too explicit.
The whole feel of the picture comes from the model's pose and the rendering of the cap and greatcoat. It reminds me how much I was looking at the work of Norman Rockwell at that time.
The model was Chris Riddell, a fellow student of mine at Brighton.
Chris was always an amazingly talented draughtsman, and he has had a very successful career as both a political cartoonist, and a creator of children's books.