Allan Eitzen
Happy Festive season to one and all, this is my last post of 2023 and I hope it finds you well, cup of tea, coffee or your preferred beverage in hand and nicely chilling out awaiting the holidays to come.
It’s been a tricky year for many reasons, which I won’t go into right now, but thank you for staying with me on this journey of exploration of different artists who tend to catch my eye. I have one last one for you,,, but it’s a good one. Enjoy : )
Allan George Eitzen was born on the 25 May 1928 in Minnesota. He received an education in art from local Gustavus Adolphus College before moving to Scottdale, Pennsylvania, where he worked as an illustrator for Herald Press.
It was there that he met his future wife, Ruth Carper, who was developing educational materials for the same Newspaper. After a month’s acquaintance, Ruth moved to Europe for a four-year term with Mennonite Central Committee. During that time, she and Allan remained in contact and, after her return to the United States, they married on 12 July 1954. In the meantime, he had earned a degree in illustration at Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts).
They moved to a country home in Barto, Pennsylvania, and had five children.
He supported the family as a freelance illustrator of children’s books, magazines, and textbooks, often inspired by their idyllic country setting and his flock of sheep, his children were often the models in his book illustrations. 8 year old Dirk was the model for the book ‘Pick a Whistle’.
When the children left home, he had more time to devote to his artistic medium of choice, printmaking, while Ruth continued her education at Temple University, where she earned a master’s degree in creative writing.
Together, Allan and Ruth wrote and illustrated three books: The White Feather (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1987); Ti Jacques: a Story of Haiti (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1972); and Tara’s Flight (Honesdale, PA: Boyd’s Mill Press, 2008), which was released ten months after Ruth’s death on 11 April 2007.
Allan continued working professionally as an illustrator until 2007, and as a printmaker almost to the time of his death. In a 2008 interview, Allan described his style as “stylized realism. . . simplification or slight abstraction . . . a little exaggeration here or there to give it a personal touch.” Here are a few of his later artworks that I came across in a You Tube tribute.
Sadly Allan died of cancer on 31 August 2008 at the age of 80. Such a talented individual with a varied and technically acclaimed eye for illustration and art. I contacted two of his children Laura and John, who have sent me many images of their father’s work which I intend to put into a follow up post in 2024. In the meantime I managed to buy this beautiful book of his work from 1963 called ‘Birds in Wintertime’. It is a book without words and I think from the illustrations alone, it really doesn’t appear to be lacking in any way for not having any.
Aren’t these illustrations just stunning ! This is my festive gift to you all.
Happy Holidays wherever you are and I look forward to sharing next year with you too.
All the very best fishes, Craig x
Victor Chizhikov
Victor Aleksandrovich Chizhikov was born on September, 26th, 1935 into a family of office workers in Moscow. He started to publish drawings when he was still a schoolboy, in the newspaper ‘Housing Worker’ in 1952. After finishing school he entered the Art and Design Branch of the Publishing Faculty of the Moscow Polygraphic Institute (nowadays – the Moscow State University of Press), where he graduated in 1958.
How lovely are these trees !
From 1955 Victor Chizhikov worked as an illustrator in the comic journal ‘Crocodile’, from 1956 – in children’s magazine ‘Vesyolie Kartinki’, from 1958 – in ‘Murzilka’ (from 1965 – the associate editor), and from 1959 – in the travel magazine ‘Vokrug Sveta’ (Around the World).
In 1960 the young artist who was frequently published in the periodical press was admitted to the Union of Journalists. He also worked in other popular periodicals. Though Victor Chizhikov started his career as a caricaturist, from the early 1960s he was mainly engaged in illustrating children’s books, and co-operated with major Russian publishing houses. He was a versatile artist and worked in many different styles.
In 1968 Victor Chizhikov became a member of the Union of Artists of the Russian Federation. His illustrations embellished books by almost all classics of the Soviet children’s literature – Agnia Barto, Sergey Mikhalkov, Boris Zakhoder, Samuil Marshak, Nikolay Nosov, Edward Uspensky and many other domestic and foreign authors.
Easily recognizable, full of kind humour and warm-heartedness, Chizhikov’s drawings became known to millions of readers of all ages. In 1980 he created the famous bear cub Misha – this emerged as the best out of 40,000 submissions for a contest to select the mascot for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. At once it became one of the most popular Russian cartoon characters. The same year, he was awarded the order of the Sign of Honour, and a year later gained the title of the Most Deserved Artist of the Russian Federation.
The mascot born out of the Communist bloc’s greatest power, the Soviet Union, ironically became the first to be a globally commercial success. Sadly, Victor said that he was promised the copyright but didn’t get it, and thus never saw any royalties from the stuffed toys, t-shirts and television programs related to Misha the Bear. “I hate to talk about mascots,” he told The Wall Street Journal but “This is like a thorn in my heel.”
Starting from 1966, for over more than thirty years, he repeatedly won the “Art of Book” competition, participated in exhibitions both in Russia and abroad, and got numerous professional awards, including the Diploma of Academy of Arts of the USSR (1980), Andersen Honourable Diploma (1980), and Diploma of Council on Children’s Books of Russia (1997). He also gained the award for the highest achievements in the genre of satire and humour – “Gold Ostap” (1997).
Victor Chizhikov also showed himself as the author of children’s fairy tales, such as “Petja and Potap”, “Petja Rescues Potap”, “Sharik and Vaska are Against”.
In the mid-1990s the publishing house Samovar started to issue the series “At Victor Chizhikov’s”, which included twenty books by different children’s writers, and two books written by the artist himself. Each of the books in this series was accompanied with Chizhikov’s illustrations and a preface.
Among his most significant works of recent years is the book 333 cats (2005), which was created jointly with the poet and writer Andrey Usachyov. During his life, Victor illustrated over 100 books, he sadly passed away in 2020 at the age of 84.
Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair 2023
Hi everyone, I hope this finds you well.
It has been a while since I’ve pulled together a long post detailing one of my trips out, and now (after three hours of photo editing and sorting contact details etc), I know why I don’t get to do it as often as I used to lol. I am spending some time looking after my parents and working hard on promoting and selling my ceramics, which has become the work I enjoy the most … long may it continue !
However here is a nod back to my degree show from the late 80’s, a silk scarf design I created and printed. At the time interior company Timney Fowler was an influence on my thinking and I chose to give this nautilus shell idea a more modern slant, by recreating modern sayings like “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw fish” and ‘Many fish make light work”.. you get the idea.
It is from illustrating Fish on my Textile degree course that the name Fishink was finally born!
So introduction over, I wanted to show you my small offerings from the 2023 Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair from last weekend. To give you a feel for the size of the event, there were over 100 exhibitors taking part. The first today is from Nell at Hem Handwoven.
Looking like a beautifully crafted pantone chart, Nell takes hundreds of photographs of an small town (such as Whitby) and then creates a colour selection of no more than 10 colours from the photographs. She then weaves up a range of scarves that are directly connected in tone and hue to that area.
Nell says “I always made things- I was brought up in a household of makers, and as an only child, I spent lots of time following my imagination and making. I’m fascinated with fabric- I import fabrics from Japan and Sweden. Trying to find the perfect fabric led me back to wanting to learn to weave- I remember making little cardboard looms when I was a child. Weaving is old. There are hundreds of thousands of drafts, offering infinite combinations of pattern, colour and texture. I think this bottomless quality is what appeals.” Beautiful fabrics Nell.
Next I spoke to the Ceramist Annie Tortora. Her stunningly realistic small birds, felt like they had literally risen from my children’s Observer Book of Birds and morphed into 3-D ! Annie says “I have been connected with clay professionally for many years now, principally as a ceramics tutor in A&F education and in an Arts for Health service based in the NHS. I truly believe in the therapeutic power of Creativity & Art. I’m proud to have worked in this capacity for over 30 years. Alongside this, I’ve practiced ceramics for pleasure, for my own creative development and sustenance and I’ve enjoyed working on commissions and exhibiting at intervals along the way.”
Her partner had made such a beautiful stand too which all cleverly came apart and broke down into easy to carry (and storeable) parts, a truly alented team.
Some more bird inspired work, but this time stained glasswork from Debbie Copley.
Creative and quality leatherwork from colourful designer Gosia Weber which were definitely too cool for school !
Intricately detailed beadwork from coding guru Cressida at Reid and Mason. She told me “my passion for textiles, pattern and colour inspire my work. Semi-precious stone and glass beads combine imaginatively with a variety of miniature treasures to create hand embroidered bespoke artwork. The addition of Morse Code allows me to transcribe text into a series of dots and dashes which once strung can be incorporated into my pieces creating secret hidden messages. Favourite poems, lyrics, prayers or a declaration of love can all be immortalised in the beadwork producing artwork that really can speak to you.”
Back to the birds, (and other animals) by talented ceramist Jack Durling. Jack is a Brighton based artist who is inspired by the natural world and creates bespoke ceramic sculptures that are celebratory of animal species. Focusing on natural behaviour and animal congregation, his work is notable for decorative embellishment and I would also say.. the viewers quirky enjoyment.
I loved the calm illustrations by printmaker and embroider Gail Kelly. She works using linocut, woodcut and lithography, inspired closely by the countryside where she lives, along with gorgeous gardens and beautiful landscapes she sees on her travels in Ireland and Britain.
Vibrant, leafy screenprints by Kathy Hutton. It turns out from our chat, that Kathy not only is related to one of my best friends but also went to the same school as me when I was a youngster. Small world hey!
When chatting to ceramist Nehal Aamir, she told me that her work was inspired by Pakistani truck art which also enabled Nehal to illustrate her own heritage. She explained how personal the illustrations painted on the decorated trucks were to the drivers. The images have meaning to their families, communities and offer glimpses into their beliefs and sometimes even depict the gods who watch over their safety as they spend long hours on India’s dusty roads. I thought it wonderful how Nehal had captured a part of her heritage and transformed it into a decorative tile for people’s interiors.
I had bumped into illistrator James Green a couple of time before at other events. I feel we have a similar sense of creating characters who inhabit our minds, or in Jame’s words ‘alternative universes’. In his case it’s his clever little donkeys who strutt around and often steal the show.. or at least the print !
In the style of most good adventures, I was saving the best til last and for me this time, it was definitely the quiet little 20 minute chat I had with the lovely ceramist Lucy Baxendale. Her work is delightful, charismatic, offbeat and downwright enchanting. I had feelings of meeting a clay form of Maurice Sendak’s ‘and ‘Where the Wild Things are’, merged along with mischievous sprites, carefree creatures and whimsical folk of the forest. All creations from Lucy’s wonderful head.
We had a great chat about where we both feel our influences had come from and how her parents were so great at encouraging her and her sister to think as creatively wild as possible. No idea was ever considered too much, too crazy or simply silly. Her father created his own apps to switch lights on and off in his home whilst he was away and many other helpful devices for around the house. It sounds like a great childhood and a wonderful way to nurture an enquiring and creative mind. I can see where he work comes from. Beatutiful work Lucy and thanks so much for the inspirational chat.
Needless to say, apart from a quick hello to my friend Tone Von Krogh (who’s stand always looks amazing), my two small purcases today were from James and Lucy. How lovely to take a little part of their worlds home with me.
Do visit the weblinks to the artists I have mentioned today and if you like their work too, please tell them you saw them here and perhaps buy a little something along the way too.
For some of my work you can find me over on instagram at Fishinkblog. Thank you GNCCF for a wonderfully exciting day out.
William Crosbie, Scottish Artist
Welcome to the wonderful work of William Crosbie.
William was born in Hankow, China, in 1915, of Scottish parents. The family returned to Glasgow in 1926, where Bill attended Glasgow Academy and, in 1932, entered Glasgow School of Art. On graduating in 1935, he was awarded the Haldane Traveling Scholarship and set off for Paris, where he gained admission to the studio of Fernand Leger and was able to study under the master; he described his time there as ”one of my proudest experiences”. When his scholarship ended Bill was offered a job with the Archaeological Institute’s expedition to the newly excavated Temple of the Bulls and Temple of Sakhara in Egypt, where he copied the friezes on the temple walls.
In 1939, Bill returned to Glasgow where he set up his studio at 12 Ruskin Lane, a studio originally designed for Sir David Cameron. During the war he served in the Merchant Navy, though he continued to produce paintings through these years. He was also at the centre of what he once described as ”a little local Renaissance”, which included luminaries such as Hugh MacDiarmid, J D Fergusson, James Bridie, T J Honeyman, and Basil Spence. Other ”regulars” at his studio were the refugee artists Jankel Adler and Josef Herman, as well as Duncan Macrae (whose portrait by Crosbie is now hanging in the People’s Palace).
After the war Bill made his London debut at the Reid and Lefevre gallery in 1946 in a joint exhibition with the English surrealist painter John Armstrong.
An important part of Crosbie’s work after the war were his mural paintings, largely commissioned through his association with architects like Basil Spence and Jack Coia. These included works for the ”Britain Can Make It Exhibition” in 1946 and the ”Festival of Britain” in 1951; there were also many murals and altarpieces for churches of all denominations. He was involved in book illustrations for the publisher William MacLellan and even designed the set of a ballet for George Chisholm.
He exhibited on a regular basis with the Annan Gallery in Glasgow from the war until the 1970s and in Edinburgh with Aitken Dott’s. From the 1980s he showed with Ewan Mundy in Glasgow. Academic recognition came in 1953 with his election as an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy and subsequently as an academician. In Glasgow he was a proud member of, and annual exhibitor at, the Royal Glasgow Institute, and he was also a former president and long-time member of the Glasgow Art Club.
There were major retrospective exhibitions of Crosbie’s work at Aitken Dott’s in 1980, Ewan Mundy’s, 1990, and Perth Museum and Art Gallery, 1990.
His paintings hang in all the major museums and galleries in Scotland as well as the Royal Collection and the British Museum in London, and in private collections throughout the United Kingdom and abroad.
Some of his work has a flavour of Ravilious about them, like these watercolours below.
William’s own words are perhaps his best epitaph: ”Devotion to the muse and the life it has led me has meant I have enjoyed a richness of texture not readily to hand to the majority of my fellow citizens.” He was one of the finest and most singular Scottish painters of the twentieth century. He passed away in 1999 at the age of 84.
The City Art Gallery’s Cafe used to be covered with a stunning mural by William which started to fade and peel and has consequently been covered up, this is a photo of part of it , in it’s heyday. Thanks to Clare Henry for the photo.
If you have any suggestions for blog-posts for an artist who’s work you consider would fit with the style I tend to show on Fishink Blog (1950’s 60’s), then please let me know. I won’t guarantee to use them but It’s always interesting to see who gets nominated : )
Elya Yalonetski Ceramics from another age.
Elya Yalonetski is an award winning Berlin-based artist. Her work appears to stem from another period in time, yet not one that you can easily put your finger on.
A mixture of Greek mythologies, Chagall dreamscapes with a nod to the worlds of folk myths and fantastical wonder.
I smiled as soon as I came across it. I also love how she creates such large pieces carefully balanced on such tiny points. For me this also gives her work a sense of wonder and fascination.
I can’t imagine how long each piece must take to create, such detail and fine line work, I’ve a feeling Elya must be quite a steady handed, patient ceramist.
Her photographs also are like mini stage sets, they show her work off quite beautifully.
This wonderful Edwardian couple and their tiny tattoos.
Her tower of Babel must have taken weeks with all those characters. Amazing work, don’t you agree.
Elya says:- ” I have been working with ceramics for the last 20 years, successfully combining my initial traditional education from the Abramtsevo Art school in Russia with the Baroque and Renaissance elements in my sculptures and figurines. For me ceramic is a very mystical art medium. Being very fragile it can still survive over ages and epochs. Having mostly unknown authors each ceramic piece keeps the personal aura of its creator and whole cultures are named after certain ceramic styles. With over 1000 objects sold to the collectors around the world, I hope that some thousands years later someone will be able to “read” the feelings from my artworks like I can feel them admiring the work of ancient craftsmen in some archaeological museum.”
You can see more from Elya on Facebook and purchase some of her wonderful work here.
Brian Wildsmith New Book & Exhibition News for 2024
Hello everyone, I hope this finds you all well and enjoying the last of the summery days as the season here in the UK turns to a more chilly Autumnal one.
I am back with some very exciting news regarding one of my favourite children’s illustrators Brian Wildsmith. If you remember back in 2020, I had an interview with Simon Wildsmith, who alongside his sisters, Clare and Rebecca, set up a wonderful website dedicated to sharing more of Brian’s amazing work and personal life with us all.
On September 7th, there was a fabulous release of a new collabrative book called “paws claws tails & roars” which is very special to Simon in particular because it has been assembled using three of his father’s books on Birds, Fishes and Wild Animals. Books that had been dedicated to him alone. It is a beautifully crafted publication, larger than your usual A4 book layout and printed on heavyweight paper with gold foil on the edging !
A special volume published by the @oxunipress to honour the work of Brian Wildsmith, who remains one of my personal llustrator favorites. At just £20 it is a definite must for any bookshelf and I think suitable for children and big children (myself included) alike ! Here are a few selected highlights.
Further to this, mid September I finally got the go ahead from Simon that I could share a burning secret I had known about for a while.. namely that there is a major exhibtion planned in Brian’s original home of Yorkshire.
The Exhibition will run from 20th April 2024 til the 21st September 2024 in both Experience Barnsley Museum and the Cooper Gallery and as it says above, will feature 170 exhibits across the two venues So exciting that this collaboration is not only being housed in Yorkshire but is also curated by Brian’s family too. I look forward to giving you any updates I receive as they appear. Watch this space !!
Vintage Housekeeping and Cooking Tea Towels
For decades designers have thought that it would be a great idea to inspire the cooking housewife in the home, by putting recipes onto tea towels and linens. Imagine the scenario… you completely run out of ideas as to what to make for the family dinner, well worry no more, dust off the tea towel and there’s your answer, ingredients and all ! Of course that doesn’t help you out the next day when you have the same problem all over again, unless that is, you have a drawer full of these beauties lol
Cooking and washing up go hand in hand, whatever country you happen to be in. You can even be inspired to go global and make a Goulash or Curry as a complete change to the British meat and two vegetables ensemble!
Such was the popularity of the idea, that there were hundreds of variations made.
Over many different time periods.
And in many different countries. I’m sure you ladies will all be flocking to get a copy of the Housewife’s Arms below.. with the inspirational motto ” Labour without ceasing”. I am hoping if that was meant to be tongue-in-cheek ?
It appears (from the design above) that Sunday is the only day of rest for the working housewife, and perhaps the saying ‘ a woman’s work is never done’ would be somewhere nearer the truth.
I do find the quotes on these towels rather amusing.
Great designs and educational too.
I bet this Happy New Year 1968 tea towel just bursting with advertisements for Colgate & Palmolive, went down an absolute storm ! But seriously, who wants to be reminded about cleaning products all year round ? Really !
However, I do think some of these much more modern illustrations (below) would make some fetching new tea towel designs.
Many thanks to Cindy over at NeatoKeen for selecting most of the images used in this post, from her vast collection of vintage linens. Also for coming up with the idea for this blog in the first place. May our collaborations long continue : )
Chris Turnham Illustration
Photo by Dan Cole.
Chris Turnham lives and works in Los Angeles. He has worked in both feature and television animation and has contributed illustrations to publications and children’s books.
Of course his style appeals very much to my eye and love of the mid century life.
This could be fresh out of a book from 50+ years ago…. fabulous.
Interesting to see some floral and botanical studies too.
Illustrations of intrepid explorers….
and places Chris has also explored.
But my absolute favourites are his his beautiful architectural pieces… was this the bridge used in the film Grease, I wonder ?
Many of these illustrations are commissions.
Or just plain jaw-droppingly wonderful ! Lol
I love Chris’s use of the sun in these sleepy suburban dwellings.
He has even covered the Eames House, below. Stunning work Chris.
Stig Lindberg More ceramics
I have written before about the wealth of ceramics produced by the talented Stig Lindberg, and as I keep coming across more and more previously unseen pieces, I feel it is time to welcome Stig back into the Fishink blog fold once again!
I came across a fair few of Stig’s drawings. Some of them are quite clearly early ideas for ceramic pieces, which were developed later.
Themes appear again and again. Heraldry, horses, double heads, couples or siblings, mythology and make believe.
I wonder whether these were painted from dreams or just some crazy random thoughts.
Also interesting to see that the same plaque would be painted in different ways. Was this perhaps to make the ceramics feel more unique, to make the range look more varied or merely to keep the artists who painted them all day long, from getting bored lol
See below, how the knight on horseback develops from a drawing into ceramic tiles.
Again the rider appears, and in a variety of colours too.
More double heads.
There is something peaceful and joyous about Stig’s work.
His work has gone on to influence so many.
I love these shapes, the curvy elephant with the Ali-baba slippers lol
More visually pleasing shapes with textural repeat patterning.
Figurines I’d not previously seen. I love mister bluebird here…
And of course some beautiful all over patterns. Such a talented guy.
What is your fav ? please share, comment and help spread the Fishink blog. Thank you
Robin Heighway-Bury
I last posted this in 2018, I think it’s well worth a reminder.
You may well be familiar with the graphic work of Robin Heighway-Bury if you lived in the UK between 1991 to 1994, because he produced ALL of the advertising – poster, press and animated TV ads for Heinz during that time. Which, when you think about a company the size of Heinz, is quite an achievement in itself !
I actually came across more of Robin’s wonderful work by spotting a new book cover (below) he had created for a republished book about the life of the Hare by George Ewart Evans and David Thomson. I contacted Robin to discover more about the man behind the work. He explained that he has produced two more covers in this series that ‘The Leaping Hare’ is from, but they won’t be published until April, so sadly he can’t jump the gun by showing us those just yet.
Hi Robin, your black and white work for The Family, Derailed and in the Eric Newby book (see below), reminds me of a 1950-60 style of working I’ve come across, also used by Graham Byfield (see here https://fishinkblog.com/2010/08/14/picture-this-the-artist-as-illustrator/ ) and Terence Greer ( https://fishinkblog.com/2014/10/31/terence-greer-mid-century-illustrator/ .) Can I ask, when did you create your work and were you influenced or even asked to work using this style at all ? I’m curious if there was London Illustration ‘look’ that was popular at the time, as I guess the retro 60’s resurgence seems to be used a lot now ?
” I’ve been illustrating since 1985 (after brief stints as a lab assistant and electricians mate -that’s a job title, not a social status – and then a few years as an engineering draughtsman. So not a contemporary of the great Terence Greer, or Heinz Edelman, they were prolific when I was a very young boy. My contemporaries were starting out after college around ’85 but I somehow sidestepped that route and got a portfolio together after realising that a more creative application of my drawing skills may be more enjoyable as a career.
Those ’50s and ’60s influences that are evident in my work have appeared more in the last ten years, I’d say. Though I did see Yellow Submarine when it came out at the age of six, so maybe Heinz Edelman influenced me in my career choice early on after all ? ”
” I would say that the majority of my illustration over the years has been editorial, followed by book publishing (covers and one children’s book – Who Built The Pyramid, Walker Books) but I think I’ve covered most areas over the last 30 years or so. ”
Here’s a special glimpse into his sketchbooks. I’m always fascinated by other artists ways of working.
There’s a fab sense of retro that surfaces in Robin’s work.
What has caught your eye today ? Many thanks to the man himself for becoming a part of the Fishink Blog artists. Keep up the great work Robin.
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