Katie's Picture Show: Tale of a Trail

Monday, 1 February 2010

Tale of a Trail

With only a couple of days left to complete the art for the "Katie Trail" for the National Gallery of Scotland, I thought I'd quickly upload images of work in progress... a mixture of sketches and finished pieces. It's almost like a very swiftly-produced mini-book! Katie will find various tasks in the book, introduced by a pair of gallery guards in their fetching tartan trousers. The first task is to complete several paintngs (redrawn by me) which have bits missing. This took the longest, but it's almost ready now.

The front of the guide will feature Katie outside the National Gallery of Scotland with Edinburgh castle in the distance. 3,000 will be printed to start with, and as the gallery is Edinburgh's second-to-top attraction (after the castle), I hope this FREE guide will make a good souvenir for children. Of course you have to go to the gallery to get one...

The museum will provide a pencil case (free hire) for children to use. A very exciting initiative and we all hope it will get more children into the gallery and looking at the fabulous paintings inside!

3 comments:

Saviour Pirotta1 February 2010 19:57
This looks wonderful, James. It will make the kids realise that you can engage with a picture in more ways than just looking.
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Roger Simó3 February 2010 11:32
It's so interesting! Unfortunately I'm afraid the museum is a little far away from my house in Barcelona!
The illustrations (and sketches) are wonderful...
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James Mayhew3 February 2010 11:47
Thanks saviour and Roger.

Actually Edinburgh is a long way from me as well. It would be quicker to fly to Barcelona than take the train to Scotland!
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VISITING THE NATIONAL GALLERY?

Here's a list of paintings featured in Katie books, that you can find in the National Gallery collection, in London. See how many you can find!

Seurat's Bathers at Asnières – room 44

Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers - room 45

Monet's Waterlily Pond – room 43

Turner's Fighting Temeraire– room 34

Constable’s The Cornfield – room 34

Henri Rousseau's Surprised – room 45

Renoir's The Umbrellas – not currently on

display as at 20/2/12

Renoir's at the Theatre – room 44

Velazquez's Philip IV of Spain in Brown and

Silver – room 30

Murillo's Peasant Boy Sitting on a Sill – room

Ingres' Madame Moitessier Seated – room 41

Biography

Born in1964, James Mayhew's first book for children was Katie's Pictures Show, (Orchard Books 1989) establishing the long running series about a child's adventures in an art gallery. Many of his books have a cultural agenda and James is passionate about introducing children to art, music, opera, ballet and traditional tales.

He has made regular appearances at the National Galleries in Edinburgh and London and visits many schools, and arts and literary festivals.

James is a member of the Art Worker's Guild and the Society of Authors.