Lucy Cousins Painted in Our Studio!

Maybe you’ve already heard that Lucy Cousins, author/illustrator of the Maisy books (among many other greats) was at The Carle two weekends ago? She journeyed across the pond with her daughter Jo for our Maisy Day to help celebrate Our British Cousins: The Magical Art of Maisy and Friends, an exhibition of her work open through November 25th. 

Her day commenced with a stroll down the Great Hall arm-in-arm with Maisy and ended with a book signing.

In between she started a mural of Maisy and her friends at the farm that guests added to throughout the day.

Lucy’s daughter, Jo, served as the art director. “Make Maisy bigger,” she exclaimed as Lucy lightly penciled her shapes on the the paper we pinned on the wall.

Lucy said that she uses the colors straight from the tube (except for Maisy’s pink) when she makes the art for her books.  She uses gouache in her original art for the Maisy books but she used our tempera paint for the mural.

Lucy started with black lines. Once those were nearly done, young guests added farm animals, apples, flowers, clouds and more that they had painted with tempera cakes on separate pieces of paper that they had cut out and glued to the wall.

I rarely am star struck when artists visit The Carle, but because she gave of her time so humbly and generously in a space that feels as much my own as The Museum’s, I was really touched by her visit.  Getting to meet artists whose work I feel personally connected to is inspiring. It reminds me why I studied illustration in college and why I love picture books and this Museum so much.

It was an honor and pleasure meet you, Lucy. Thanks for the beautiful wall! Our guests light up when they see it. There’s a great article over at Publisher’s Weekly as well about her work.