The Art of Living: The Illustration Cupboard

I am all a-flutter at discovering The Illustration Cupboard, a gallery in central London that houses some splendid book illustrations from some well-loved favourites such as Janet Ahlberg, Shirley Hughes and Brian Wildsmith.

They currently have the 16th Annual Winter Exhibition of Classic and iconic contemporary book illustration and film animation which runs until 31 January 2012. This Saturday 26th November is The Winter Illustration Festival from 11:00am – 5:00pm. You can pop along for  tea and cake with Shirley Hughes and Angela Barrett, with live music and a children’s reading corner. There will also be a chance to win signed books and prints in a charity raffle in aid of Amnesty International. Read more here...

"I started The Illustration Cupboard in the spare bedroom of my sister’s flat in 1995 when there was little interest in collecting contemporary book illustration artwork. Twelve years on I am pleased to regularly show the finest artwork in this field to a broad audience from our art gallery in St James’s, central London. Many of the artists in this exhibition are award-winning illustrators with international reputations, whose books sell throughout the world. I often think how lucky I am to have the opportunity to see this original work when so many thousands of others see only the printed page." Founder John Huddy


This is the line-up of artsists that you can discover at The Illustration Cupboard.  What worldy visions they create for the storybooks on our shelves, for wide-eyed children to behold, and for the heirlooms of the future:

Janet Ahlberg, Wayner Anderson, Edward Ardizzone, Angela Barrett, Simon Bartram, Benedict Blathwayt,Anthony Browne- Dick Bruna- Emma Chichester Clark- Lauren Child- Iassen Ghiuselev- > Kathleen Hale-Roger Hargreaves- Jane Hissey- Shirley Hughes- Bruce Ingman- Robert Ingpen- > Oliver Jeffers- Anita Jeram- Satoshi Kitamura- John Lawrence- Peter Lord- John Vernon Lord- > Debra McFarlane- David McKee- Inga Moore- Jill Murphy- Graham Oakley- Kevin O’Neill- > Nick Park- jan Pienkowski- Beatrix Potter- Jane Ray- Catherine Rayner- Chris Riddell- > Angelo Rinaldi-Axel Scheffler Maurice Sendak- E H Shepard- The Snowman Cels (Raymond Briggs)- Shaun Tan- Joseph Theobald-
Helen Ward - Brian Wildsmith- Chris Wormell

One of my favourites: The Snow Queen,  Brian Wildsmith

There's some artists prints for sale online and signed books too - such worthy investment gifts for your children.  I have a very long wishlist of my own. It really is my dream gallery!

The Illustration Cupboard also have many book signings during the year, previous events have included Lauren Child, Allan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingman.

What a special place it is www.theillustrationcupboard.com

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This is part of the Art of Living series of posts that bring you all the things we are passionate about and the things we discover in our lives as mamas.

In our Wednesday Woo blog post series we present a selection of things from the Sisters Guild Boutique.

We also have a Monday Makery with ideas for things to make yourself.

And for a glimpse behind the scenes of Sisters Guild we have the A-Z of Sisters Guild here 

www.sistersguild.co.uk