|
|
|
| After having turned down requests to illustrate children's books for many years, I was offered Audrey Wood's manuscript for THE RAINBOW BRIDGE and found it impossible to resist. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| The book is a perfect combination of the historical and the imaginative. It allowed me to present the Native American Chumash tribe authentically, yet gave me the opportunity to visually portray the storyline in an almost mythic manner. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Audrey and I journeyed out to the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California to research the story's actual geographic backdrop, along the way encountering the dolphins that figure so prominently in the book. We studied the artifact collections in the Santa Barbara and Southwest Museums, and I hiked through the natural terrain of Chumash country, collecting references I would use in the finished paintings. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| Native Americans posed for me in my studio in authentically styled clothing. With this wealth of material, I set about to paint in oils the finished art for the book. The large canvases, sixteen in all, took two and a half years to complete and represent for me a thoroughly rewarding introduction to my career in children's books. |
|
|
|
