Mid Century Airline Posters Part 2
Welcome back to part 2 of my blog on Mid Century Airline Posters. If you missed part 1, you can find it here.
These posters (below) were designed by the artist Jean Carlu. I like his crayon-like lines.
Relax in style, retro-style with Lufthansa.
A few more from BEA.
The Spanish poster above was created by John Minton.
From BEA to BOAC and a graphic style and some quirky animals.
The amusing animals continue into these great Quantas posters.
Simple yet inspirational !
Finally we come to the Golden Gate Bridge and a splashdown at Niagra Falls with American Airlines.
More from Dong Kingman (above) in another post.
If you enjoyed my posts then do check out these similar ones about Pan Am, B.O.A.C Part 1 and B.O.A.C Part 2 and Braniff.
Also please leave me a comment with your thoughts and most of all…. Have a fun start to your week !
Mid Century Airline Posters Part 1
I’ve covered many different Airline Posters on Fishink blog in the past. There’s Pan Am, B.O.A.C Part 1 and B.O.A.C Part 2 and Braniff to name a few.
Here’s a great collection that I came across and haven’t seen many of before. I make no apologies if they have appeared on here previously however as they are all rather special!
Let’s begin by flying TWA.
Some wonderful posters, which make me want to hop on a plane right now.
Great use of colour, space and design. They are visually captivating.
Many of these wonderful posters were designed by David Klein. Such a talented artist.
From TWA to BEA.
Followed by some fresher United Air Lines posters.
That Miami Sun is fabulous don’t you think.
The San Franciso poster below, makes me think of Miroslav Sasek. Or perhaps they’ve just picked the same elements.
A little more structure from American Airlines.
From Braniff to Japan Air Lines.
A few Pam Am specials to finish for today. Is that Cilla ?
More Mid Century poster madness next week.
Mark English
Mark English‘s work has been a staple of the Illustration industry for decades. The Society of Illustrators inducted him into their Hall of Fame in 1983, and he continued to work in, and influence the market for years after that. Sadly, this giant of illustration passed away a couple of months ago. I thought I would showcase some of his work here today.
Mark was born in 1933 in Hubbard, Texas. He attended the Hubbard High School and graduated in 1951, after which he enrolled into the University of Texas and was then drafted into the military during the Korean War.
In 1954, Mark married his first wife, Peggy Ann Littlejohn. In 1960, Mark graduated with honours from The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, with a BFA in Advertising Design.
After gaining work experience in advertising agencies for the automobile industry, Mark and his family moved to Connecticut in 1964.
He began an illustrious career, working with publications such as TIME Magazine and Sports Illustrated among others in the corporate, pharmaceutical, music and postage industry.
In 1977, Hallmark Cards offered Mark an Artist-in-Residency to teach classes to its creative staff in Kansas City. It was there that he met his second wife, Wendy Buskey, and they married in 1983.
In 1995, Mark retired from illustrations and began to paint for galleries in earnest.
He had quite an usual departure from his previous illustrative and quite photographic style.
Combining elements of cloth, paper and motifs to help construct his decorative collages. Using a variety of subject matter such as people…
… bird life…
… flowers…
…cities…
… and horses.
Wonderful compositions and subtle dashes of texture and colour to help identify both the subject and the flow of movement. Look at the colours in this beautiful work.
Often Mark makes the viewer search for the animal in the work.
Stunning paintings and harmonious colourations.
However his most prolific work concentrated around landscapes. Playing with geometric shapes, layering colours and texturing throughout.
In 1995, he and his son John co-founded the Illustration Academy, an art and design workshop catering to students and professionals.
From 1999 onwards, Mark’s work and paintings were exhibited in galleries across the United States and in London.
Beautifully serene landscapes.
Mark’s last exhibition was in 2019, in the Sager Braudis Gallery, in Columbia. He has had a tremendous influence on multiple generations of artists and hopefully his work will continue to delight, inspire and shine out from blogs like mine well into the future. How many of you readers knew of his work already ?
If you liked Mark’s early work you may also admire the work of Mac Conner.
Taisto Kaasinen
Taisto Kaasinen (1918–1980) was one of Finland’s leading ceramic artists in the 20th century.
He was the son of Viljam Kaasinen and from 1941 married to Airi Lija Valtonen. Kaasinen first studied art on his own and then privately for Erkki Koponen and Uuno Eskola . He was trained as a ceramicist at the Arabia factory 1946-1952 and was employed as a ceramic artist at Upsala-Ekeby in 1952. He returned to Arabia in 1961 where he has his own studio in the art department. He participated in the exhibition Artium Exposé in Gothenburg in 1953 and in several exhibitions in Uppsala.
He was part of the Nordic tradition aiming for warm-hearted, humorous, and sometimes subtly ironic design.
My favourite piece is this cat, such a great character.
He became a prominent designer of animal and people figurines with rounded shapes and kind expressions.
Taisto’s artistry is represented at the numerous museums in the Nordic countries.
He even depicted Knights of Old and Knights of Bold !
Also using flat ceramic-relief artforms as well as more 3D sculptures.
‘People’ (the name of the sculpture above), is located on the Hermanni Parish Hall in Helsinki and was made by Taisto in 1967. It depicts five people of different ages, holding each other by the hand to form a chain which symbolizes unity within the parish and involvement in the different stages of people’s lives.
I love his range of 2-D and 3-D friendly ceramic pieces.
Beautiful Nordic Ceramics. If you enjoyed this, check out the work of Mari Simmulson, Stig Lindberg and Lisa Larson.
Evaline Ness American Mid Century Illustrator Part 2
Welcome back to part 2 of my post about the life and work of Evaline Ness (April 24, 1911 – August 12, 1986). Please look back one post to see part 1.
Evaline was noted for her ability to work in a variety of media and her innovative and unique illustrations that interweaved text and pictures to create a story that captured a young child’s attention and imagination.
This talent is especially evident in her own written works with their girl protagonists and subtle stories that have a backdrop of ‘feminism’ and present ‘real’ characters learning about all of life’s pleasures, problems, and pains. Because printer’s ink is flat, Evalines’ constant concern was how to get texture into that flatness. The primary challenge in illustrating children’s books, she believed, was how to maintain freedom within limitation. Some of the techniques she has used to combat these limitations include woodcut, serigraphy, rubber-roller technique, ink splattering, and sometimes spitting.
Her first illustrations for publication in a children’s book were for Story of Ophelia by Mary J. Gibbons (Doubleday, April 1954) —using “charcoal, crayon, ink, pencil and tempera”. Not, I feel, her finest hour illustration-wise !
Kirkus Reviews said, “Evaline Ness’ colour pictures of elongated, human-looking animals express in their flimsiness, a searching quality.”
Evaline considers her illustration career to have officially begun in 1957 when Mary Cosgrove, editor at Houghton Mifflin, approached her with the manuscript for The Bridge by Charlton Ogburn. Jr. Originally, Ness refused the offer, thinking the profit would not produce enough income for her to live on. Cosgrove persisted and eventually Evaline agreed. She used offset printing techniques for the production of The Bridge. Ness pushed her silkscreen illustrations beyond the page margins and integrated text outside strict boundaries. The Bridge received much acclaim and Ness decided to leave commercial illustration and only focus on book illustration. In the following years, Ness’s use of mixed media and experimental materials garnered accumulated attention from a wide audience.
According to Charles Bayless at the bookshop Through the Magic Door, the 1960s were a time of experiment in illustration for children, with some fashion for “drawings with sharp, angular figures, muted colors and representational or cartoon-like styles”, which helped Evaline to thrive. “Macaroon” from 1962 shows this to be true.
The first story Evaline both wrote and illustrated was “Josefina February” (Scribners, 1963), after visiting Haiti for one year. It was set in Haiti, about a girl’s search for a lost burro, with a series of woodcuts.
Evaline was known for her variety of styles and techniques in her artwork.
Look at the many different styles here in some examples from her illustrations.
There’s a rich diversity in her work, perhaps that helped make her art so desireable to publishers.
I still am really drawn to the more simplistic two or three colour work.
Here’s a few examples of her magazine work from the early fifties.
Her three Caldecott Honor Books were published 1963 to 1965: All in the Morning Early by Sorche Nic Leodhas, A Pocketful of Cricket by Rebecca Caudill, and Tom Tit Tot: An English Folk Tale retold by Virginia Haviland. She herself wrote the Caldecott-winning Sam, Bangs and Moonshine (1966), about a fisherman’s daughter, illustrated with line and wash drawings. “Sam” (Samantha) tells lies or “moonshine”, which finally endanger her pet cat “Bangs” and a neighbor boy; she learns responsibility for what she says. (see post 1 for illustrations).
Late in life Evaline experimented with cut-out colouring books such as Four Rooms From The Metropolitan Museum of Art To Cut Out and Color (1977).
Her last illustrated book was The Hand-Me-Down Doll by Steven Kroll (1983) —using pencil, watercolor, ink and charcoal.
Evaline died in 1986 in Kingston, New York, then a resident of Palm Beach, Florida. What a colourful life and a talented artist.
Evaline Ness American Mid Century Illustrator Part 1
Evaline Ness (April 24, 1911 – August 12, 1986) was an American commercial artist, illustrator, and author of children’s books. She illustrated more than thirty books for young readers and wrote several of her own. She is noted for using a great variety of artistic media and methods.
As illustrator of picture books she was one of three Caldecott Medal runners-up each year from 1964 to 1966 and she won the 1967 Medal for Sam, Bangs and Moonshine, which she also wrote. In 1972 she was the U.S. nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award for children’s illustrators.
Great mix of printed patterns and pen and ink to create both texture and depth.
Evaline was born Evaline Michelow in Union City, Ohio and grew up in Pontiac, Michigan. As a child she illustrated her older sister’s stories with collages cut from magazine pictures. She studied at Ball State Teachers College 1931–32 to become a librarian, then at Chicago Art Institute 1933–35 to become a fashion illustrator. For a while she was also a fashion model.
She adopted and retained the name of her second husband Eliot Ness, married 1939 to 1945. She had previously married one McAndrew, and she married engineer Arnold A. Bayard in 1959, who survived her.
In 1938 Eliot Ness was already famous as a former United States Treasury agent. (As leader of a legendary team nicknamed “The Untouchables” he had worked to enforce Prohibition in Chicago, Illinois.) Now he was the recently divorced Safety Director for the city of Cleveland, Ohio, with a new team of Untouchables (men who cannot be bribed). By April 1939, when he cleaned up the Mayfield Road Gang, Ness and Evaline McAndrew were an item in Cleveland, where she was a fashion illustrator at Higbee’s department store. After their marriage (October 14), they remained an item because she would “keep house—and her job”, and because they went out with a female bodyguard for Evaline. A friend of the couple once said that “Evaline liked being Eliot’s wife when he was a famous and influential public official. She liked his prominence, power and fame. He loved her, no question about that. He always called her ‘Doll’.” After a 1942 scandal ruined his standing in Cleveland, the Nesses moved to Washington late that year. Evaline studied at the Corcoran College of Art and Design 1943–45 and taught art classes for children there.
After divorce she moved to New York City and worked 1946 to 1949 at Saks Fifth Avenue as a fashion illustrator.
Around 1950 she traveled to Europe and Asia, concluding in Italy, where she spent 18 months sketching until her money ran out. I
In Rome she studied at Accademia de Belle Arti 1951–52. Back in the United States, Ness found no work in San Francisco, so returned to New York and “assignments doing fashion, advertising and editorial art”. At some point she studied with the Art Students League and she taught art to children at Parsons The New School for Design 1959–60.
Check back in to check out part 2 of Evaline’s story next monday.
Fishink Ceramic Sale
Hello Everyone, I hope this finds you well. Just a quick post to say that I have my first Ceramic Sale starting over on my stories on Instagram at 9am UK time today. you can find it here
I have over 100 new pieces, many of which are the largest ones I have created to date. Please have a browse and message me there if there is anything you would like to purchase. Many thanks Craig
Here are a few examples of what is available : ) Happy Browsing
Clarke Hutton Mid century Illustration
Stanley Clarke Hutton was born in Stoke Newington, London, on 14 November 1898, son of Harold Clarke Hutton, a solicitor, and his wife Ethel, née Clark.
In 1916 he became assistant stage designer at the Empire Theatre.
About a decade later he took a trip to Italy, which inspired him to become a fine artist. In 1927 he joined the lithography class at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. He studied under A.S Hartrick, replacing him in 1930-1968 as the instructor in lithography.
As soon as he took up his post, Hutton began to experiment with using the autolitho technique for book illustration. His aim was to develop a process that would make it possible to produce affordable, colour illustrated books for children. Here’s a few of the covers he created.
For many different publishers and on a wide variety of subjects.
This is the story of Noah.
He later worked with Noel Carrington at Penguin Books to develop the Picture Puffin imprint.
He used the same technique on Oxford University Press’ Picture History series. He illustrated about 50 books in all, for publishers in the UK and USA.
The Story of Tea.
Wartime in Britain.
Life in other parts of the globe.
Also some of his geometric work from the sixties.
A more Surrealist feel.
His paintings, figures and lanscapes, were widely exhibited. He died in Westminster in 1984.
Leaflet promotions by London County Council.
Such a wealth of talent, don’t you agree ?
Any images that grabbed your attention today ?
Kenneth Rowntree
Hello to one and all, I hope this finds you well. Today’s wonderful artist is the legendary Kenneth Rowntree.
He was an artist, designer and teacher who worked in Britain from the 1930s through to the 1990s. Born the son of Howard Doncaster Rowntree, and educated at Bootham School, York. Kenneth was part of the extended, and famous, Quaker Rowntree (confectionery) family. His immediate branch of the family were shopkeepers and business leasers in the Yorkshire seaside resort of Scarborough – where they owned the town’s department store. There’s some interesting background family history here…
He studied at the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford and went on to the Slade School of Fine Art. At the Slade he met Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden, moving to north Essex to work more closely with them. They became known – with others – as the Great Bardfield Artists. Here’s one of Bawden’s painting from around the village.
In 1939, Kenneth married architect Diana Rowntree (née Buckley) with whom he had two children.
He painted beautifully tranquil depictions of life around him.
During the Second World War, he worked for the War Artists’ Advisory Committee. He was one of more than 60 artists commissioned by the Government and financed by the Pilgrim Trust to record the face of England and Wales before development or wartime destruction changed it.
Amazing to have these scenes catalogued in such a way.
Capturing scenes of devastation and celebration both.
Recording Britain, as this project came to be known, covered a total of 36 counties. Kenneth Rowntree concentrated on capturing the essential character of old buildings and interiors in Bedfordshire, Essex, Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Wales.
After the war he joined the Royal College of Art as head of its mural painting studios. He designed book covers, such as that for King Penguin and created “A Prospect of Wales”.
Kenneth contributed 20 watercolours to the book, covering the landscape and buildings that inhabit it. The painter Clive Hicks-Jenkins has this to say about it.
In 1951 he completed a major mural, Freedom, for the Festival of Britain and two years later painted scenes along the processional route of the Coronation, with the Queen later acquiring some of his works.
In 1953, he painted scenes along the processional route of the Coronation, with the Queen later acquiring some of his works. In 1959, he was appointed to succeed Lawrence Gowing as Professor of Fine Art at Newcastle University; it was one of the most progressive art schools in Britain, where the teaching staff included Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton. He held this post until his retirement in 1980.
It was at Newcastle that he became receptive to various modernist idioms, such as assemblage and constructivist forms, and incorporated them in his own work. He repainted the scene of an outdoor table and dishes, over and over again, everytime slightly changing it’s location and use.
I can’t help but wonder if he had been inspired by Ravilious’s earlier Tea at Furlongs painting from 1939 ?
Amongst many other achievements, Kenneth Rowntree worked with the architect Ernő Goldfinger to produce coloured glass panels in Goldfinger’s Alexander Fleming House (now Metro Central Heights) in the Elephant and Castle. He also created many portraits.
But he’s possibly best remembered for his country scenes.
I particularly like this scene set in the woods of a church. You really feel the crisp autumnal leaves and slightly cool breezes.
In the 1960s Rowntree was elected Professor of Fine Art at University of Newcastle, where he remained until his death in 1997.
Dong Kingman Part 2
Welcome back to part 2 of my post about the artist Dong Kingman. Check out Part one from last week and we’ll start today with some coastal views (probably from the 1940’s)
Such great perspectives and rolling land and seascapes, coaxing the viewer’s eye to travel to the very edges of the canvas.
1954 was a year of dramatic changes. Hollywood director James Wong Howe‘s film short “Dong Kingman” was released, Dong’s wife Janice died, and U.S. Department of State International Cultural Exchange wanted him to tour the world as a cultural ambassador.
He put himself into this work whole-heartedly and returned to the USA to publish the 40 foot scroll chronicling his visits to the worlds cities in the pages of LIFE magazine in February 1955. In 1956 Dong married journalist Helena Kuo, and the following year he began his lifelong association with Hewitt painting workshops, traveling to exotic locations once or twice a year teaching watercolour workshops.
You can see how much lighter his work has become.
By the time his first book “The Water Colors of Dong Kingman, and How the Artist Works“ was published in 1958, Dong Kingman was a household-name. That year Kingman moved from Midtown to Wildenstein (1958-69) where he broadened his international reputation with successful exhibits in New York, London and Paris.
Dong had met many people in the entertainment industry through the years and some of his friends were now employed in the art departments of film crews. He added his touches to films such as The World of Suzie Wong (1960), Flower Drum Song (1961), 55 Days in Peking (1963), and Sand Pebbles (1966). His friend Emil Kosa, Jr. was also on the art team of Sand Pebbles, providing the matte paintings for “special visual effects”.
A few early sketches.
The 1960s were a whirlwind of painting and traveling worldwide. Dong’s unique multi-cultural persona, pegged early on as merging Eastern and Western styles made him a valuable asset to the USA in world relations. His influence on the popular culture of America through use of images of his paintings in movies, magazine covers, posters, and illustrations furthered the warming of relations between China and America that culminated in President Nixon’s historic 1972 China visit. A decade later in 1981, Kingman was the first American artist to be accorded a one man show in China since diplomatic relations between the two countries resumed. More than 100,000 visitors attended and the retrospective received critical acclaim from the Chinese media.
Through the rest of his career Dong continued traveling and painting the cities of the world. His high-visibility assignments through the years included creating posters for the Olympics and Pan Am, and numerous cover assignments for magazines like Time, Fortune, Life, and Saturday Review. He was invited to be a judge in the Miss Universe contest in 1969 and was proud to serve 20 years, sharing the stage with stars and celebrities of the day.
When Dong Kingman went on tour for the State Department in 1954 he realized cities were his favorite subjects and he spent the rest of his life capturing the lively essence of the world’s great cities. In 1997 “Portraits of Cities” was released chronicling the vitality and beauty of the world’s major hubs of civilization as seen through the eyes of one of America’s own watercolour masters.
If you look at Dong’s work year by year you can see his skills and style sharpen and shift. The muted grays and umbers and realism of his early watercolors gradually gravitated to brighter colours with scenes populated with characters and symbols drawn from Dong’s personal iconology and sense of humor. His late period paintings are brighter still with masterful abstractions in design using the white of the paper to expert advantage.
Dong Kingman passed away from pancreatic cancer in the year 2000 at the age of 89. His paintings hang in over 60 Museums and public institutions world-wide.
During his lifetime he won “virtually every major award for this medium” including the American Watercolor Society‘s prestigious Dolphin Medal and National Academy’s 150th Anniversary Gold Medal of Honor. His family keeps his legacy and good works alive through archival and arts outreach at Dongkingman.org.
Many thanks to Watercolor Painting dot com for their information on Dong which has helped make this post possible. Which of his paintings caught your eye today ?
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