News and reviews

A brief round-up of current news stories, exhibitions and competitions – plus new books, reader offers, catalogues and websites, and dates you need to remember.

Illustrator’s Notebook

Award-winning illustrator, painter and printmaker Olivia Lomenech Gill has created illustrations for books by Michael Morpurgo, J K Rowling and, most recently, for Medusa, by Jessie Burton. She shares some of the sketches she completed when working on Burton’s retelling of Greek myths.

60 years of Private Eye

It came into the world with a desire to outpunch Punch, so from the start Private Eye had a commitment to satirical drawings and cartoons. Since then, it has attracted work by the best cartoonists and caricaturists of the day, from Gerald Scarfe to Ralph Steadman, Harry Fantoni and Wally Fawkes. Since 2015, it has run more pages and more cartoons, showing that the art form is very much alive and kicking in the hands of the next generation.

Celia Levetus

Celia Levetus’s delicately beautiful and carefully crafted illustrations for William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience demonstrate why she was hailed as a brilliant emerging talent at the start of the last century. She created a bookplate for William Holman Hunt and was strongly influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement and by Art Nouveau, however she gave up illustrating when she married and has largely been forgotten. We find out more about her inspirations.

Dame Laura Knight’s circus 

Laura Knight completed many sketches, illustrations and full paintings capturing the Bohemian life of circus performers as they practised, dressed in their elaborate costumes and prepared to enter the Big Top. Her close acquaintance with the troupe members and their lifestyles has left us a fascinating glimpse into the real-life world of travelling performers.

Will Dyson and his family

Australian-born Will Dyson was one of the most successful cartoonists of his generation. He spent much of his life in the UK and was best known for his many years on the Daily Herald, but he also produced cartoons for numerous other papers and published many collections of his own cartoons, as well as illustrating books by other artists. His wife, Ruby Lind, was also a successful artist, but she died young in the Spanish flu epidemic.

Hanoch Piven

Hanoch Piven has made a name for himself creating collage portraits, mostly of famous people, from a bizarre mix of found objects. Fruit, sweets, paperclips, pencils and other items are used to form depictions that are part caricature, part surreal homage. He explains what inspires him and why he is now dedicating so much time to teaching others.

Graduate  round-up

Four young artists fresh from their degree courses at Cambridge School of Art discuss their current work, their inspirations and their ambitions for their future artistic careers.