Charley Harper

I came across some of Charley Harper's work recently when I was looking through some design books and fell in love with the bright and colourful, stylized illustrations of his.As a wildlife artist, the majority of hiswork is of animals and in particular birds.

I love the feeling of his work - it's all so playful and young, it's no wonder he illustrated a little golden book as well as other children's books.What I find fascinating is, the majority of his work is from the 60's when he was at the height of his career as an illustrator, his work seems kind of timeless to me in a way - It still seems so modern almost 50 years on which is a triumph for any designer. Some pieces have that retro feel with the patterns in those mustard and browns tones but then others are so bright, geometric and modern... there's just so much there to look at. I love looking at the way he's composed his pictures in shapes, it kind of fascinates me.

When asked to describe his style of illustrating his response was;

"When I look at a wildlife or nature subject, I don’t see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings. I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behavior and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures."

I love that and I think it so sums his work up in those few words!

It's got me thinking I need to get my little paws on some of his books... In the meantime i'll just enjoy his website.

Head on over to www.charleyharperprints.com to have a look at some of his other pieces (with some pieces up for sale which i might also add), I would love to post all of my favourites up but the list grew far too long!

Enjoy!

Danielle xx