Picture This

Picture This is the wonderfully titled small exhibition of the work of some of Templar Publishing's established and debut illustrators on display in The Cafe at Foyles.  Last night (Wednesday 8th May) was a private view for invited guests including librarians, book reviewers and friends as well as family, not forgetting the Templar team!

It was my first visit to The Cafe at Foyles and my first opportunity to speak to the lovely group of illustrators too.  Lovely indeed they are which is what one would expect from the small and close-knit team at Templar.  They have found some of the most talented young artists and illustrators, nurtured them and created beautiful books with them.  Not only have they created these beautiful books, they have made them readable too.  

There will be those who will collect them and love them for their art, those who do so for the words and those who just love reading and sharing them.

The pictures hanging on the walls demonstrate the skill of the illustrators, they have been chosen by Templar's art director and that is not a task I envy him having, after all how does one choose only one print from the work of an illustrator to display?  Not an easy task but one that has been done with great skill and shows off the stunning artwork to a brand new audience.

It is perhaps to be considered a stroke of genius to put this exhibition on the walls of a cafe in a bookshop.  Some would argue that those in a bookshop will be looking at books anyway but would they have considered these?  Perhaps it will open picture books and the skill of their creators to a whole new audience.

Without doubt it was wonderful to meet the talented people behind the work, speak briefly to them for this was their evening and their chance to circulate, and understand a little about how they have found themselves in the enviable position of being able to indulge in their love of art and story.

Thank you to Foyles for hosting the exhibition, to Templar for finding such wonderful talent and inviting us all along to share and of course to the illustrators themselves for giving us such stunning, evocative work and clever books too!