‘Happy Birthday Edward Lear’ is an exhibition at the Poetry Café, London, celebrating 200 years of Edward Lear.
There is more than one defining Victorian writer celebrating his bicentenary this year. Edward Lear, who gave us ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ and ‘The Dong With a Luminous Nose’, developed the limerick into a staple of nonsense verse, and whose drawings are still instantly recognisable, was born 200 years ago on 12 May – a milestone that threatens to pass quietly, overshadowed by his contemporary Dickens.
But début art illustrator Andrew Baker and animator Linda Hughes (working together as Paper Galaxy) have stepped into the breach, mounting an exhibition at the Poetry Society’s Poetry Café in Covent Garden to say, “Thank you, Mr Lear”. ‘Happy Birthday Edward Lear’ will feature work by an astonishing range of over 40 artists and illustrators, including fellow début art artists Dominic Trevett, Jane Webster and Morten Mørland along with Glen Baxter, Geoff Grandfield, Jonny Hannah, Simon Pemberton, and Vaughan Oliver, who created the artwork for all of the Pixies’ albums. The pictures, inspired by Edward Lear’s work, encompass all styles and contemporary interpretations.
The exhibition runs from Monday 7th May to Friday 8th June at the Poetry Society’s Poetry Café in Covent Garden.
For more information you can check out the blog for the event here.
Wired Magazine's Money 2025 money issue, aptly titled "It's a Rich Man's World," as imagined by artist Lisa Sheehan. How did she bring this piece to life? In her own words: "To make the credit card as authentic as possible I redrew the American Express pattern in Illustrator with the WIRED headline included. The card was then created in Cinema 4D and I drew the etching of Trump in photoshop. This all came together and was animated to give the feel of an apple pay screen. This was a multi disciplined approach, 2D textures drawn and then rendered in 3D." You can check out the animated piece and more of Lisa's work here.
Welcome to Sara Gironi Carnevale who recently joined Début Art. Sara lives in Italy and has been illustrating since 2016. Sara works digitally but her process remains traditional in terms of brainstorming and composing. The illustrations are done in a sketchbook before refining them in Procreate and then finalising all artwork in Photoshop. Her work is vibrant, luminescent and dreamlike, with intricate details, strong concepts and compositions. Sara has the ability to present complex topics in a way that is visually easy to understand. Her illustrations can be seen in numerous magazines, newspapers, books and prints. She has also been experimenting with animation. See Sara's full portfolio here
Eoin Ryan was commission to create one of a series of new illustration to commemorate 25 years of TfL. The aim of the campaign is to remind Londoners why they love TfL and highlight the rich connections, improvements, and influence it has brought to their lives over the past 25 years. More of Eoin's work can be viewed here.
AAAS hosted a recent gallery show, “Invisible, novel, and complex: A decade of visualizing science”, which was a 10-year retrospective show of visuals from Science magazine, being shown in their home office in Washington, DC. One of the highlights of the exhibit included a pair of pieces about Neurodegeneration by Simon Prades, originally commissioned for the October 2, 2020 issue of Science. Photography: Chrystal Smith/Science. Simon's full portfolio can be reviewed here.