All Shapes and Sizes

Faeries come in all shapes and sizes . . .

from Johnny Gruelle's My Very Own Fairy Stories, 1917

Bloggy Blog Blog

This image is totally out of season, totally unrelated to anything—who cares? Right? Bloggy blog blog. Images, images, we're all hungry for images.

Sorry, I'm a little hyper. We're moving home and studio over the next couple of days, and then I pick up my new super-duper, top of the line, dee-luxe, 800 hundred horsepower, slick-trick magic machine. Yes, it's a Mac and I'm proud to say it.

Good golly, why am I so hyper. I moved a truck-load of furniture today and I'm dead tired. But change is exciting and I'm almost done with my 3 years in the making deadlines for 3 separate clients! And then what . . . I dunno.

Okay, this image is slightly related to something relevant. This is, of course, from a Mid-Summer Night's Dream, and we saw a terrific performance of same while we were in London! You just can't go to London and not do something Shakespeare related.

From an old print, don't know the artist, date or anything else. 
But look close at the elegant engraving lines— 
somewhat like paper currency.

Faerie Folk

I recently received this phone charm as a gift. Pretty cool, huh?

I love the faerie folk.

A Passion

Bertha Lum had a passion for art of Japan and China and worked in a style somewhat blending East with West — utterly enchanting.

Bertha Lum —Land of the Bluebird — 1916

A Great Imaginist

Gustave Doré was a great artist, though not usually considered a great painter, though he dearly wanted to be.

He was a great IMAGINIST, preparing thousands of drawings and paintings for the engraving process that the publishing media was limited to at the time.

As I have indicated before, I would dearly love to see a large book dedicated to Doré's non-engraved works.

Gustave Doré — les fées — 19th century

Alright, sort of one more green theme to ease us out the door.

The Old Hall

Holy cow, these faeries seem sinister . . .

John Anster Fitzgerald — The Old Hall & Faeries by Moonlight

Postcard

This is quite an explicit postcard for its time of around 1900. I would imagine the postal carrier would raise an eyebrow or two or three as he handed it to the recipient. Wasn't it usually Puck that rode around on a bat's back?

Faerie postcard — ca 1900

For Bliss and Irish Watches

John Simmons was in the top echelon of Faerie painters . . .

John Simmons

Hermia & Lysander — A Mid Summer Night's Dream

Below is a fragment of a Thomas Hood poem that I like, from the 1870s, and wanted to tie it into some image and I thought the above painting was as good as any, even though it be out of context.

Below, two zoom-ins from the painting to show the gorgeous detail that is rife with life around the perimeter.

Portals

Portals to and from the Other Realm can open anywhere, as evidenced here. Keep your senses keenly aware at all times.

Moebius — Portal

Just Great

This post is dedicated to Annie Swann, great friend of this blog, whose great Art of Narrative blog has wonderful fanciful images, usually from the great Golden Age of Illustration. Annie is a great fan of great illustration, great faerie art, and through seeing some work on this blog, great Beatrice Stevens art.

In total candor, I found the original monotone state of this drawing a bit flat, though totally beautifully drawn. To me it cried out for some sort of tonal values to give it a bit of depth. So, I gave it a duotone treatment. And if you don't like that, for you purists I've included the original state below that.

This is a total side note, but it's an autobiographical blog, so I'm entitled. Before I was married, I dated a couple of young women, who as I got to know them more, revealed that they liked to color with crayons in coloring books, just for mindless relaxation. I found that to be charming and endearing and I never discouraged those sorts of 'hobbies', even though I had no desire to emulate.

Until now. With digital programs I find myself taking existing line art and having at it with colorizing techniques. I can justify that, I tell myself, thinking that I'm training myself to be a colorist for the comics industry, but in reality it is mindless relaxation.

Beatrice Stevens — The Faeries (modern color) — 1917

I love the individual attention each faerie got from Stevens, but especially the one just to the left of the little girl, emulating her pose. A girl and her dog, with a big book of fantasy in her lap — Annie, that's how I visualize you as a kid.

Beatrice Stevens — The Faeries (original state) — 1917

Potent Totem

A Christmas tree can be a pretty potent totem for magic . . .

Sarah Stillwell Weber — The Fairy of the Christmas Tree — 1918

Flying Lessons

So, the question is, WHO is giving the instructions?

William Stout — Flying Lessons — 1993

Faerie of the Wood

Charles Lenoir — Faerie of the Wood — 1908

la Belle Melusine

I'm determined to relate this image to those of the last two posts, as being part of the same enchanted realm. A 14th century tale tells of la Belle Melusine, daughter of a mortal king and the faerie Elinas Pressine, here in a wedding procession near the Forest Coulombiers.

Jessie Bayes — The Marriage of la Belle Melusine

Days of Knights

Back in the days of knights were the dark ages, when superstition ruled the senses. I should like to visit a forest like this.

Sir John Gilbert — The Enchanted Forest — 1886

The Wizard and the Child

An odd, but interesting little graphic by Rose O'Neill, originator of the Kewpie . . . with an odd, but interesting little story . . .

Rose O'Neill — The Wizard and the Child —1920s

Delicious

Two of Arthur Rackham's less well known, but delicious, graphics.

Arthur Rackham — Faeries — 1914

Arthur Rackham — Mermaids — 1914

Fairy Aids

Magazine ads used to be like unto a fairy tale.

Willy Pogany — Djer-Kiss ad — 1922

The Mistress Fairy

I can never get enough of golden age faerie illustrations.

Really. Can you?

Milo Winter — This is MAB, The Mistress Fairy — 1918

Light and Substance

Robert Huskisson's faerie paintings are remarkable for their staging of light and substance, as in this case framed by the beautiful trompe l'oeil arch, creating a theatrical portal to another world. The faeries are voluptuous figures, yet innocent in their portrayal from Ariel's song in Act I of The Tempest. The floating upside down figure is remarkably evocative of weightlessness, especially for the time period that this was painted.

Robert Huskissson — Come Unto These Yellow Sands —1847