A Loon, a pair of 3D glasses, and the Swiss Alps in a heatwave

Gracia's The Loon of Swan Hill Seeks an audience (above) is one of three new collaged artists' books made especially for Draw Me A Story — The Art of Children's Book Illustration, which opens this Thursday the 23rd. I am currently making two more M-shaped stands using the Pythagorean theorem to support her artists' book set in the Swiss Alps. One peak is 22 centimetres high, the other 12, and on my work table before me they look like tiny versions of the alps in the collaged landscape. It's been ages since I've had to make one of these stands for displaying an artists' book and I'd quite forgotten how much I love this slow and precise process. (Many of our concertinas do not require stands and we display them either flat or in a loose star formation.)

Gracia's three new artists' books have totally captured my imagination. From her 3D glasses required for the playful Under the water, with a two-colour eye-glass, something similar to a play on the word/name Loon (is it the merman or the bird at his feet, the Red-throated Driver Gavia stellata?), I love this new trio of work. But the one I perhaps love best of all is As if from the clouds, restless, G's work set in the alps, because it has one exciting difference: a short story to accompany it. It is poetic and beautiful. It gave me a real sense of flying in the air, like the protagonist.

I look forward to sharing more with you soon. It's been too long and too hot, and we are all exhausted, but the week around the corner looks good.


7:52AM outside the bedroom, Misha sits high on the fence post watching the neighbour breakfast.


Unbeknownst to Percy one large and wary Ratty puts an escape plan into action.


As if from the clouds, restless (a detail from a new artists' book set high in the Swiss Alps.)


Tools (from the farm) arranged in a sun formation on the front veranda.


8:40AM and it's time to draw the curtain closed for another hot day.


Sitting beneath the Olive tree, looking up at the feathered pantaloons of the tree doves above.

To explore and read at your leisure:
"...lazily flopped the warm sea", a heatwave on High Up in the Trees
Saturday's beautiful Percy portrait by Elaine
SINATRA’S COLD IS CONTAGIOUS: Hostile Subjects, Vulnerable Sources & The Ethics of Outing by Maria Dahvana Headley
A vertical forest is nearing completion in Milan. It also contains 400 residential units. (ScienceWTF)
Sally Magnusson's piece about her mother's dementia (Guardian)

And as always, head to our instagram or twitter feed to find our these things in a more timely fashion.