The Artist

Product Information

Puffin is an imprint of Penguin Random House, the world’s number-one publisher representing a vibrant community of publishing houses marked by unparalleled success. Through our world of stories, Puffin aims to open up the world to every child. Our mission is to inspire children to feel they can be and do anything, and to create readers for life. Kirkus starred review-'Colorful, boldly imaginative, dynamic, quirky, and wonderfully child-appealing illustrations. . . . This book proclaims what children already know: Creativity and making art spark joy.' For that to happen the Power of Pictures author/illustrators must re-instill a sense of drawing confidence in the teachers we’re teaching. Many haven’t drawn since they were at primary school. We demonstrate a few simple confidence-building drawing exercises which show how a character can be easily created. From there a drawn character can interact with another. An idea for a story often sparks soon after. He has also been an invited speaker at many literary festivals in the UK and internationally, including;Hay Festival,Bath Festival,Edinburgh International Book festival in the UK.And;Cuirt International Book Festival, Galway, Ireland;Towers and Tales, Waterford, Ireland;International Literarture Festival, Dublin;Guadalajara FIL, Mexico (British Council); Hay Festival Kerala, India (British Council); Flupp International literature festival, Rio, Brazil (British Council);VallettaFestival of Children's Literature, Malta (British Council)

From the moment a child comes into the world they are searching for visual clues. Trying to understand if you are friend or foe, through facial expression and body language. Pictures speak this language fluently. Pictures intimate emotions, feelings and nuances that words cannot because of this sophisticated visual vocabulary (which we are constantly building). Pictures are open to interpretation – there’s nothing concrete to get right or wrong - which means they’re open to discussion. Vere describes the book as 'a painted and written travelogue, a journey of discovery, it aims to engender a love of nature in a world increasingly disconnected from it. The book will discuss issues around freedom, conservation and what we can do to create a world in which wildlife thrives, rather than perishes.' The book aims to properly discuss the issues at hand and consequently is aimed at a wide-ranging audience from 8 year-old to adult. Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week(Ireland)-'Perfect for creative minds, Ed Vere’s beautiful children’s book The Artistfollows a young dinosaur on a mission to share her art with others...This book features joyful illustrations and a powerful message about what it means to be an artist.' - Lynn Enright

Key info

Even if readers don't need encouragement to unleash their own talents, they should be intrigued by this protagonist's arc toward artistic assurance Publishers Weekly We understand complex expressions and emotions through drawings from a very early age, in ways we can’t yet do with the written word or spoken language. I struggled enormously with literacy projects at school, English comprehension was an unending nightmare. I just didn’t get it. Drawing was another matter. Some children are academic thinkers – others, just as bright, think in other ways; spatially or visually. We must learn how to engage them, so they don’t come to believe, as I did, that they aren’t worth much. As I mentioned at the beginning,it’s about howwe connect with another person. By using drawing and pictures, we engage, we animate - we get an idea to live in another mind.

As a writer who also draws, I’m interested in how we connect with another person through words and pictures. How we engage, how we animate, how we get an idea to live in another mind. When I read to children, I’m endlessly amazed by the power of a picture book. That a character is grippingly alive for those kids. An inky drawing of an enormous, lonely gorilla playing a piano, transforms in the mind into a living breathing being, deserving of love. It blows my mind. Every time.Ed Vere is an award winning and New York Times bestselling writer & illustrator of picture books. He is a patron at CLPE and isthe artist in residence at the Born Free Foundation. Vere travelled to Kenya in early 2019 to explore, paint and write about Born Free’s work. Writing about and painting lions, their natural habitats and the local populations they live alongside. Discovering the work Born Free does to ensure that the world's remaining 20000 wild lions have a secure and sustainable future. Ed and Born Free will be publishing a book in 2022. There will also be an exhibition and fund-raising auction. Ed has performed on stage, live drawing with (amongst others) The Britten Sinfoniaand The Neil Cowley Triofor the 'Mr Big plays Jazz' concerts. Selected venues have been; The Barbican Centre (London), Wigmore Hall (London), The Hexagon (Reading), Saffron Hall (Saffron Waldon), Norwich Cathedral and Cuirt International Literary Festival in Galway, Ireland.