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Children
romping
through
blueberry
patches,
frolicking
with
kindly
canines,
exploring
a
beach
or
sailing
in
an
azure
sea
–
these
are
the
idyllic
images
which
people
the
many
illustrated
books
created
by
Caldecott
Medal
winning
author
Robert
McCloskey.
Five
of
McCloskey's
best-known
works
with
their
original
illustrations
are
on
display
in
an
engaging
exhibition, The Art of Wonder,
at
Brunswick,
Maine's
Curtis
Memorial
Library.
The
more
than
sixty
pencil,
pen
and
ink,
and
acrylic
paintings
are
artfully
displayed
throughout
the
library,
often
coupled
with
various
editions
of
McCloskey's
work.
A
stroll
through
the
corridors
becomes
not
only
a
journey
back
into
childhood
memories
of
reading
these
books,
but
also
a
powerful
and
visceral
connection
to
the
land
and
the
sea
and
the
sky
that
inspired
McCloskey
so
vividly.
Robert McCloskey was born 1914 in Hamilton, Ohio. As a young man, he
gravitated to artistic endeavors, carving a totem pole for a summer camp
and creating bas reliefs for the Hamilton town hall. His artistic bent won
him a scholarship to Boston's Vesper Art School in 1932 and then on to
New York's National Academy of Design. In 1940 he married Peggy
Durand with whom he had two daughters, and the family settled in Upstate
New York, spending summers on Scott Island, off Little Deer Isle in East
Penobscot Bay. In 1942 he won his first Caldecott medal for Make Way for
Ducklings. Subsequent illustrated children's books included Blueberries
for Sal (1948), One Morning in Maine (1952), Time of Wonder (1958), for
which he won a second Caldecott, and Burt Dow Deep Water Man (1963).
His books were translated into numerous languages and in 2000 the
Library of Congress accorded him "Living Legend" status.
Make Way for Ducklings tells the story of Mr. & Mrs. Mallard searching
for the perfect spot where they will be safe from the dangers of a busy city
to raise their brood in Boston. The story is memorialized in Boston
Commons Gardens by a sculpture by Nancy Schon. The exhibit displays
sixteen original sketches for the work on vellum. The pencil drawings are
juxtaposed with printed copies of the book with the completed illustrations
in ink. One cannot help but note the fluidity of McCloskey's
draughtsmanship – so nearly complete are these first sketches. There is
also the understated witty tone that would come to characterize all of
McCloskey's work, together with an unbroken sense of narrative.
 
The pen and ink sketches for Blueberries for Sal are among the most
arresting in the exhibit. Using his wife Penny and daughter Sally as models
in the classic, McCloskey tells the story of the little girl Sal, who goes
blueberry picking with her mother on a Maine summer's day when they
encounter a mother bear and her cub also berry picking in preparation for
the winter. The book uses visual and verbal techniques to parallel the two
families. During the course of the afternoon, the child and the cub become
confused and follow the wrong parent until the sound of Sal's dropping
berries into a tin pail – "Kerplunk" - alerts her worried mother and all is
put to rights.
The illustrations for the finished publication, which use a single dark blue
color and block printing, are among McCloskey's best known, and his
identification with the subjects is apparent. Sal is a real child, a little
mischievous with a winsome, curling smile and tousled hair. The
landscape depicts the wild, windswept Maine hills, where the human and
ursine pairs wander in a pre-Eden-like empathy. One of the messages of
the book is the peaceful co-existence of man and beast and the remarkable
similarities between creatures that may appear dissimilar on the exterior.
In One Morning in Maine McCloskey again uses his family as models – this
time his wife and daughters Sally and Jane. The story traces the slice-of
-life adventures of the family during a single summer's day that includes
clamming, sailing to the mainland, repairing the skiff, devouring ice cream
and returning to the island, but not until Sal and Jane each make a wish
using a sea gull's feather and the malfunctioning boat spark plug as tokens.
McCloskey's illustrations are filled with the energy of a coastal Maine day
and the wonder of simple things. The animation of the figures conveys the
family dynamic as well as a folksy sense of humor and style, somewhat akin
to Norman Rockwell. But in McCloskey, there is always the element of
fantasy or wonder or amazing juxtaposition. These are real people whose
daily life seems somehow magical.
A Time of Wonder is one of the most colorful sections in the exhibit. The
bright watercolor images help tell the story of a family's summer day on a
Maine Island overlooking Penobscot Bay – a day filled with morning rain
and fog, screeching gulls, the excitement of sailing and the sudden terror of
a storm. The child narrates the text about her island explorations of this
island which becomes a magical place filled with fascinating creatures,
intoxicating smells, and stimulating sights. McCloskey's paintings have an
animation and directness that leap from the page.
These watercolors make an excellent transition to a few of the acrylic
canvasses that the artist also created – separate from any book projects –
during this period. Again they pay homage to the beauty of coastal Maine
and the rich harmony of its colors and fluid shapes.
The same colorful aesthetic pervades the last set of illustrations in the
exhibit from Burt Dow Deep Water Man. These paintings begin
realistically in much the same vein as the acrylics- influenced by two
-dimensional printmaking with a strong linear sense and bold appreciation
for color, but as they advance the story they become more and more
fantastical. Dow, a Maine fisherman, sets out to fix a leaky boat, ends up at
sea where he catches a whale, finds himself engulfed by a storm, and must
rely on all his Maine ingenuity to survive a fierce storm. The illustrations
of the storm and the pink whale make Burt Dow into a mythical hero, and
the entire little saga takes on the cloak of Magical Realism. The story
McCloskey tells in his pictures and text is the delightfully absurd,
extravagant yarn spinning of folklore.
As exhibit curator, writes of the artist "Over his lifetime, McCloskey
followed a path of possibility and interest with an openness to wonder. His
dedication to his craft and his way of living in the world produced a legacy
of enduring children's books that inspire generations to this day."
And, indeed, the spectators at the exhibit are not only the young, but more
often, the young at heart. They come to revisit classics of their youth, to
find – in these early and preparatory sketches and drawings – an
immediacy that connects them to the stories, the places, and the memories
these hold.
Robert McCloskey is a quintessential Maine artist and there is a
universality and a magic that envelop the specifics of his images. Perhaps
it is their very simplicity. Perhaps it is their sheer kinetic energy. Very
likely it their subtle humor and humanity comingled. And more than likely,
it is the idyllic vision of a simpler life, a world of harmony and co-existence
between man and beast and Nature- a vision of childhood as everyone
wishes it to ave been.
The Art of Wonder at the Curtis Memorial Library, 25 Pleasant Street,
Brunswick, ME will be on display until October 15 For more information
www.curtislibrary.com
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