Book Launch for children's picture book OUT OF THIS WORLD: The Surreal Art of Leonora Carrington

OUT OF THIS WORLD: The Surreal Art of Leonora Carrington
Written by Michelle Markel, illustrated by Amanda Hall.
Published by children’s book publisher Balzer & Bray / Harper Collins US 22nd January 2019.
BUY BOOK: www.amandahall-illustration.c...
The children’s picture book OUT OF THIS WORLD tells of the dramatic life and strikingly original art of Leonora Carrington and her determination to forge her own creative and personal authenticity. That was all the more remarkable in the context of the historical and global turbulence of the period she lived through.
NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW 17/3/19
‘From the first sentence of OUT OF THIS WORLD: The Surreal Art of Leonora Carrington (Balzer + Bray, 40pp., $17.99; ages 4 to 8), written by Michelle Markel and illustrated by Amanda Hall, readers know that the artist is a rebel. “Leonora’s parents wanted her to be like every other well-bred English girl,” Markel writes. “But she was not.” Boarding schools and debutante balls could not quash Leonora’s artist spirit, and she heads off to art school, then off to Paris and into the orbit of the Surrealists. But it isn’t until she flees to Mexico ahead of the Nazis that Leonora discovers her true artistic voice. Wisely, Hall chooses not to recreate Carrington’s art (which can be brooding and sexually suggestive). Instead, she creates bright, busy spreads filled with enchantment. Hyenas sport wild, black manes (much like Leonora’s own hair). Tortoises peek from pockets. Green potions bubble.
Markel’s telling - evocative and poetic - feels enchanted, too, even if she does occasionally overstate for effect: “Leonora and the other female Surrealists … had no interest in painting women who looked like pretty decorations, as men had done for centuries.” One could argue that artists from Rembrandt to Goya to Millet depicted women as they lived and worked, not just as ornaments. But the author’s point is understood. Carrington’s depiction of women is singular. And Markel’s gorgeous description of Carrington’s paintings is the perfect summation of the extraordinariness found in all females: In them, “women have special gifts; they can do things beyond anybody’s wildest dreams - which is marvellous, and it’s powerful, and it’s true.”
- New York Times/ Candace Fleming