Celebrate the creative process of pioneering American abstract painter Joan Mitchell in this beautifully illustrated STEAM picture book, perfect for all kinds of young creators.
It’s 1983, and American artist Joan Mitchell is in her studio outside Paris, transforming her emotions and memories into a symphony of colors and shapes. Inspired by her friend’s description of an idyllic hidden valley in France, Mitchell creates 21 massive paintings—her Grande Vallée series —bursting with vibrant, energizing hues. But she doesn’t paint the valley’s flowers and meadows. She paints a feeling about them—abundance, freedom, liveliness—creating a harmonious blend of drips, splashes, and brushstrokes in rainbow colors. When the paint dries, it's time to share her valley with the world.
This inspiring, poetic picture book about an influential yet lesser-known American artist provides a snapshot of a creator who deserves as much acclaim as better-known Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock or Willem de Kooning. Author Lisa Rogers shares both the despair and delight Mitchell experienced throughout her career, while acclaimed illustrator Stacy Innerst’s bright artwork captures the movement and energy of Mitchell’s work, as her paintings develop from page to page.
★ "An exploration of Joan Mitchell’s passionate, color-drenched, large-scale abstract paintings. Innerst’s illustrations are fittingly exuberant, rendering Mitchell in grayscale against expressionistic brush strokes and drips in warm yellows, blues, deep greens, and pinks... simply marvelous." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“American abstract expressionist Joan Mitchell’s dynamic style and approach are the subject of this lyrical, exuberantly colorful picture-book biography…Rogers' spare text emphasizes her focus and determined imagination as she works on the paintings, but it’s Innerst’s bold illustrations, filled with thick, bright brushstrokes in riotous color alongside angular, black-and-white drawings of the lanky artist in her studio, that showcase the power of her work.” –Booklist
Lisa Rogers is the author of several celebrated children’s books, including Hound Won’t Go and 16 Words: William Carlos Williams and “The Red Wheelbarrow.” Her most recent book, Beautiful Noise: The Music of John Cage, won the Golden Kite Honor Award. A former elementary school librarian, she lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Visit lisarogerswrites.com.
View titles by Lisa Rogers
Stacy Innerst is a painter, children's book artist, and educator. His books have been honored with the Sydney Taylor Award for The Book Rescuer: How a Mensch from Massachusetts Saved Yiddish Literature for Generations to Come, The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children's Books Award for Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Case of RBG Vs. Inequality, the SCBWI Golden Kite for Picture Book Illustration for The Music in George’s Head. His recent books for Calkins Creek include Jack Knight’s Brave Flight, Saving Lady Liberty, and Lincoln Clears a Path. Visit stacyinnerst.com
View titles by Stacy Innerst
Celebrate the creative process of pioneering American abstract painter Joan Mitchell in this beautifully illustrated STEAM picture book, perfect for all kinds of young creators.
It’s 1983, and American artist Joan Mitchell is in her studio outside Paris, transforming her emotions and memories into a symphony of colors and shapes. Inspired by her friend’s description of an idyllic hidden valley in France, Mitchell creates 21 massive paintings—her Grande Vallée series —bursting with vibrant, energizing hues. But she doesn’t paint the valley’s flowers and meadows. She paints a feeling about them—abundance, freedom, liveliness—creating a harmonious blend of drips, splashes, and brushstrokes in rainbow colors. When the paint dries, it's time to share her valley with the world.
This inspiring, poetic picture book about an influential yet lesser-known American artist provides a snapshot of a creator who deserves as much acclaim as better-known Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock or Willem de Kooning. Author Lisa Rogers shares both the despair and delight Mitchell experienced throughout her career, while acclaimed illustrator Stacy Innerst’s bright artwork captures the movement and energy of Mitchell’s work, as her paintings develop from page to page.
Reviews
★ "An exploration of Joan Mitchell’s passionate, color-drenched, large-scale abstract paintings. Innerst’s illustrations are fittingly exuberant, rendering Mitchell in grayscale against expressionistic brush strokes and drips in warm yellows, blues, deep greens, and pinks... simply marvelous." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“American abstract expressionist Joan Mitchell’s dynamic style and approach are the subject of this lyrical, exuberantly colorful picture-book biography…Rogers' spare text emphasizes her focus and determined imagination as she works on the paintings, but it’s Innerst’s bold illustrations, filled with thick, bright brushstrokes in riotous color alongside angular, black-and-white drawings of the lanky artist in her studio, that showcase the power of her work.” –Booklist
Author
Lisa Rogers is the author of several celebrated children’s books, including Hound Won’t Go and 16 Words: William Carlos Williams and “The Red Wheelbarrow.” Her most recent book, Beautiful Noise: The Music of John Cage, won the Golden Kite Honor Award. A former elementary school librarian, she lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Visit lisarogerswrites.com.
View titles by Lisa Rogers
Stacy Innerst is a painter, children's book artist, and educator. His books have been honored with the Sydney Taylor Award for The Book Rescuer: How a Mensch from Massachusetts Saved Yiddish Literature for Generations to Come, The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children's Books Award for Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Case of RBG Vs. Inequality, the SCBWI Golden Kite for Picture Book Illustration for The Music in George’s Head. His recent books for Calkins Creek include Jack Knight’s Brave Flight, Saving Lady Liberty, and Lincoln Clears a Path. Visit stacyinnerst.com
View titles by Stacy Innerst
