Image (above):
Bonnie Leick, Firefly Pleads with Baby Bear, watercolor, from “Baby Bear Eats the Night”, 2012
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 20, 2 PM to 6 PM
Artists’ Talk at 4 PM
Show & Tell
The illustrations of children’s books are the first artworks we are exposed to. They stir imagination, color our dreams, bond us with those we share them with, and even teach us life lessons. In this exhibition, the Cedarburg Art Museum will feature the original illustrations of six exceptional children’s book illustrators from January 20th through May 19th, 2024. Renee Graef, Francisco Mora, Aaron Boyd, Bonnie Leick, Sherry Luhman, and Lois Ehlert’s original illustrations will be exhibited.
Images (clockwise):
Aaron Boyd, Mutt Like Me, watercolor on paper, Albert Whitman & Company, 2024.
Renee Graef, Meet Kirsten, colored pencil, from “Meet Kirsten”, 1985.
Sherry Luhman, Rust + His Mom, watercolor from “Rusty Raccoon & the Donut Shop”.
Aaron Boyd
The exhibited work will span my professional publishing career from my first book dating back to the late 1990s to my books arriving in 2024. Over this period my work has grown from early readers and children’s magazines such as Spider, Ladybug and Cricket to my newest books that I am both author and Illustrator. While my art has always primarily been watercolors, my newest work has grown to incorporate all the mediums going back to my childhood such as crayon, oil pastels, collage and found objects. Bridging the gap between my childhood and today.
Lois Ehlert
Lois Ehlert (1934, Beaver Dam, WI – 2021, Milwaukee, WI) illustrated several bestselling picture books, including Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Mice, Ten Little Caterpillars, Holey Moley, The Scraps Book, RRRalph, Lots of Spots, Boo to You!, Leaf Man, Snowballs, Waiting for Wings, Planting a Rainbow, Growing Vegetable Soup, and Color Zoo, which received a Caldecott Honor.
Renée Graef
Renée Graef, award-winning illustrator, graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BA in art. She has illustrated over 90 books for children, including the Kirsten series in the American Girl collection and many of the My First Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Renée worked as a creative director for the Little House program at Harper Collins for five years and traveled to the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites. Exhibited work will include the Kirsten series, A Little Prairie House series, and The Nutcracker.
Bonnie Leick
Whimsical. Explorative. Animated. These are three of many words that have been used to describe my art. Whimsical, because I yearn to create humor and joy for the child that becomes immersed in my books. Explorative, because I aspire to shape an unspoken adventure to accompany the main story. Animated, because I strive to give my characters life throughout and beyond each page. My hope is that in the end I’ve created laughter, encouraged wonder, and sparked great imagination.
Sherry Luhman
Sherry Luhman is a mother of four and self-taught artist. Her childhood years were consumed with art and watching her parents run their own business. After graduating from Concordia University Wisconsin with a Business degree, she combined her love of business and art together by managing her own company, The Luhman Collective. She has illustrated one children’s book, Rusty Raccoon and the Sugar Bowl, and has begun work on her second in the series. In addition to that, she has painted thousands of commissioned art pieces for people all over the United States.
Francisco Mora
Storytelling comes to me somehow naturally, everything that I ever wanted to tell to children eventually took the shape of a story. I became an illustrator because my work was colorful, simple, and humorous.
Francisco Mora, A Busy Bee from “A Busy Bee, The Story of Bella the Honey Bee”, 2012.
