I Love…Mary Blair
Hands up who’s a lifetime member of the Mary Blair Appreciation Society (if there is such a thing)? Meeeeee!!!
I’ve loved Mary Blair since I was little & first read I Can Fly. Isn’t it funny how kids study things so intently? Well I know every brush stroke of every illustration from that book, & when I recently got hold of a first edition copy & flicked through its pages for the first time in over 30 years, it was like being dumped over the head with an ice-cold bucket of ‘OMG, I remember that!’ My favourite picture was the one I’ve featured here, of the little girl as a make-believe worm in her fuzzy green beret & matching cardie. I wanted an outfit just like it when I was 5 – so stylish!
The beauty of Mary Blair’s work is that it’s just as fresh as it was 50 years ago, & her influence extends into the 21st century with so many artists (either consciously or otherwise) borrowing a little something (or a lot) from her style.
There’s so much I could say about her work – about her amazing instinct for colour, how much I love her textures, the way she uses paint, etc, etc – but what I love most is her energy & spontaneity, the boundless sense of joy, & most of all, the memories her art evokes.
If you’d like to find out more about Mary Blair, Wikipedia is a good place to start. You can also check out some more of her work at the ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive & Cartoon Modern.
The illustrations I’ve posted are scanned from my own collection as follows…
Top Left: from the front flyleaf of The Golden Book of Little Verses by Miriam Clark Potter, first published 1946.
Top Right: also from The Golden Book of Little Verses.
Above Centre: from I Can Fly by Ruth Krauss, first published 1950.
Above Right: from the endpapers of The New Golden Song Book.
Below: Two spot illustrations from The New Golden Song Book, first published 1945.
Can I join your Mary Blair Appreciation Society? I have seen some of her illustrations before, it is good to have a name to put to them. I have a large collection of kids books because I love the illustrations so much. These examples are wonderful!
How wonderful! I have always loved her work and never even knew her name, I just recognize her style. Thanks for posting this!
Her work is really iconic…and just wonderful!
I love her work. Such sparkling bright it’s-a-small-world-after-all sweetness.
So glad I’m not the only Mary Blair appreciator. How could anyone NOT love her work…that’s what I want to know!
I agree. Lovely. And totally reminds me of my childhood. :)
i’ve been obsessed with Mary blair for the longest time! i have I can fly and the art and flair of mary blair.
I’m puzzled though, my I can fly book doesn’t have that image in it! did later versions of the book have some pages missing?
Man, i am trying so hard to get my hands, on the golden songbook and little verses. any suggestions?
sam
Hi there Sam!
I got mine from Abe Books…they have a few of /The New Golden Song Book /available but they’re a bit pricey! No one seems to have /The Golden Book of Little Verses /at the moment though…
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?kn=%22mary+blair%22&sts=t&tn=The+New+Golden+Song+Book&x=45&y=6
As for /I Can Fly/…do you mean the little girl wriggling amongst the flowers? Maybe new editions don’t have that in – what a shame!
Karena, excellent feature! I have originals of both the Golden Books you’ve featured so I think we’ll have to include my gramma in our Mary Blair Fan Club ~ they were gifts to me from her at my birth ♥ … and I suppose to my mom, too, for keeping them safe for me during my “I’m Too Old For Those Books” years
I absolutely love her work. I’ve read “I Can Fly” to my two older girls – it was always so fun when they memorized the rhymes in the book and could finish the sentence. Thanks for sharing her other works.
Did you see there is a new collection of her work due out in August 2012:
http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Blair-Treasury-Golden-Books/dp/037587044X/ref=sr_1_sc_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1330041875&sr=8-5-spell
Thanks for the link Tina – I’ll most definitely be adding that to my collection, it looks great!