A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

In the early 1960s children’s picture books burst into glorious colour.

Advances in printing technology suddenly offered new creative possibilities to a generation of talented young artists emerging from art school. One man who did almost more than anyone else to translate the period’s vibrant colours, emotional expressiveness and exciting sense of freedom into illustration is Brian Wildsmith.

“What Brian did with his ABC was new. It is a riot of colour and texture and he was the first to use paint in illustration in such an exuberant way. His ABC coincided with new ways of looking at childhood which encouraged each individual’s potential. Picture books had a vital role in this.”

Formerly trained as a painter at the Slade School of Fine Art, in many ways, Brian Wildsmith redefined the children’s picture book by bringing painterly concerns to the pages of books with a tacit respect for children’s ability to appreciate good art.

Born in Penistone, Yorkshire in 1930, the son of a miner and a quite eccentric and wonderfully supportive mother, he had a happy childhood within a close knit family and strong community but the one thing that he missed was colour. “Everything was grey” he said “I had to make up the colour in my head.” And so one day, on his way to a chemistry class, he turned on his heels and went to the headmaster’s office to announce he was leaving. “I want to be a creator,” he said. “It was quite extraordinary, as I had no reason to think I had any talent for art. What was even more extraordinary was how supportive my parents were… who the hell became an artist in Barnsley in those days?”

He applied to Barnsley School of Art and went on to win a scholarship to The Slade in London where, for three years he did nothing but paint, eat, drink and study art, sleep, examine, look at, and read about art. They were happy days, he said.

Determined to make a living from his talents, he decided to become a freelance illustrator, hoping to catch some of the 29000 titles published each year that would either need covers or illustrations throughout. Countless book jackets and line drawings followed and increasing success allowed him to give up his day job teaching and devote all of his time and talent to illustration.

It was the vitality of this work that brought him to the attention of Mabel George, the children’s books editor at Oxford University Press. Inspired by Brian’s determination, professionalism and outstanding ability she asked him to create 14 full colour illustrations for Tales of Arabian the Nights. The quite stunning results and press reaction, both excited and appalled, led to his being given free rein to create his own book, signed in his own name. That ABC’s international success would be followed by a further 81 titles in the following 45 years. Those books have been translated into 30 languages, published in 37 countries and sold in their millions.

Brian spent the second half of his life living in the south of France where he died in 2016.

"Children are all-important, and so is art ... Art is food for the soul. And books are a child's first encounter with art so I felt it was a way I could make a contribution to the world. A drop in the ocean maybe, but picture books offered a chance to communicate the importance of things such as kindness, compassion, friendship and beauty."

Everything in Wildsmith's illustrations sings with life, seeming to cry out: "I am a beautiful living thing. Your life is precious, too."