I was in the Cholmondeley Room at the House of Lords on Tuesday when the charity CO-Gas Safety gave out the prizes for this years Primary Schools Poster Competition. The competition aims to spread awareness of the dangers of carbon monoxide.
A couple of years ago, when the competition started, I provided illustrations for the information pack – the picture below is one of them. I’m also usually asked to cast my eye over the shortlist.
If you know any 10 or 11 year olds, please do encourage them and their schools to take part. Full details are available here, including pictures of past winning entries.
Find 5 possible sources of Carbon Monoxide in the picture
For those of you who have received our hand-made, hand-printed cards in the past, we regret to say that, for reasons beyond our control, you won’t be receiving one this year.
To ease the pain, here’s one of our favourites from previous years. Best wishes from John & Irma
This card can be viewed two ways – starry sky or snowy sky.
When an opportunity arose to help out CO-Gas Safety, the charity that lobbies to stop deaths and injuries from accidental carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, I agreed without a moment’s hesitation. This is the organisation that gave us help and support in 2004. We’re very grateful and I like to use my skills to help them out whenever I can.
The significance of the blue fairy is related to the blue flame and crossed-out yellow flame of the CO-Gas Safety logo. Whenever natural gas is burned completely, you get a blue flame, which is good. But if there is there is insufficient oxygen, then carbon monoxide is produced and the flame becomes yellow, which is bad.
CO-Gas Safety Christmas card
Please go to the CO-Gas Safety website to find out what you can do to keep safe from carbon monoxide and other dangerous gases. Do it now! You might be at risk and it could save your life.
Stephanie Trotter, President & Director of the charity, also gives the following sound advice –
“Buy the person who has everything a CO alarm to EN 50291 for Christmas (cost not more than £20) and make sure they get all their appliances, powered by any carbon based fuel that burns (gas, coal, wood, oil, petrol etc.), regularly maintained by properly qualified people. With gas this means Gas Safe Registered.”
As an illustrator, I’ve been asked to produce all manner of Xmas-related stuff over the years.
Here’s a detail from a card commissioned by a well-known Sunday newspaper a couple of years back which. Click on the pic to see the full thing.
Islington Writers for Children (IWFC) were out in force yesterday evening (well, three of us were), when I was joined by Marion Rose and Lynda Waterhouse to brave the severe weather conditions to advance the cause of children’s literacy, promote the Buzz about Books blog and sell our books.
We set up shop at the annual Christmas craft fair at St John’s Highbury Vale School, where, despite the snow, there was a good turnout at what proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable event – something definitely worth doing again. JOHN
Two years ago, to the date, I noticed a newspaper article about this artist’s then-intention to give away 1,000 hand screenprinted paintings by leaving them around the streets of London.
On the night of Friday 14 November 2008, 20 teams of distributors would begin distributing the individually-numbered, unique multiples at the edges of the capital, working their way towards the centre by daybreak. Mention was also made of ‘well-known and not-so-well known landmarks’.
Our son figured that someone on a push-bike hitting as many local and central landmarks as possible, at a certain time of day, might be in with a chance of coming across one of the prints.
On this basis, I (note the use of the first person pronoun – singular) set out at 5:15 am on the Saturday morning to do a two and a half hour circular bike trip of the capital in search of some art. I did enjoy cycling across a deserted Millennium Bridge at 6:30 in the morning – think early episodes of The Avengers or Doctor Who – but, ultimately, returned to base empty-handed. Sad, I know, and something one should really keep nice and quiet about.
But then I thought, no! I’m not going to let my efforts go to waste! I decided if I didn’t get anything from Adam Neate, then Adam Neate would get something from me! And so a box was born…
and designed, made and dispatched to Adam at his gallery, the Elms Lesters Rooms. And no more was thought about it.
Some time later, I discovered, to my amazement, that the box had been featured in Adam’s book about the event. Needless to say, I was thrilled and touched.
I also got to meet the man himself who kindly signed my copy of the book. Result!
Cover and inside spread of Adam Neate – The London Show
Pop along to Elephant and Castle to see Images 34, organised by the AOI (Association of Illustrators), at the London College of Communication. There’s a special section for work commissioned for children’s books, jackets and interior illustrations.
Images is the UK’s definitive jury-selected illustration competition, annual, awards show, and touring exhibition dedicated to showcasing the very best contemporary illustration published in the UK. At least that’s what the AOI says, and who am I to disagree – especially as yours truly has two pieces, from It’s Magic and Motor Mouse, featured in the aforementioned Children’s Book section. One of these is also in the exhibition.
Constructing the frame for this was a pleasure but also a major pain. The art work is both digital and 3 dimensional, which meant the actual pop-up book had to be framed in a specially constructed box. But it did make it stand out from the crowd – literally! JOHN
Images 34 is open to the public from 8th – 14th September. Entry is free.
My publisher tells me that Pirate Treasure Hunt has been picked up by Oxfam, so drop by the nearest branch and get your copy – unless you live in the Outer Hebrides, in which case go here.
When I first came up with the idea for this project, I wanted to include a fold-out treasure map which could be used alongside the book. I liked the idea that the kids would relate the symbols on the map with the ‘real life’ images in the pictures, and that they could trace their journey as they hunted for the treasure. I did a similar thing recently in Detective Paws when I created a fold-out notebook for the dog detective. I also designed a plastic ‘gold’ coin for the treasure chest at the end, thus, hopefully, increasing the pay-off. Unfortunately, when I tried to spend it in Tesco, they were having none of it.
Pirate Treasure Hunt also marks the point at which I was let loose on the paper engineering side of things. I went a bit mad on glue points and card usage with the result that the book came in completely over-spec’ed, much to the dismay of the publisher. However, the book has more than earned its keep, being one of the more successful that I’ve done for Tango Books and it’s still one of my favourites. It’s even been published in Japan – how cool is that?
It was back to school last friday when I worked with the year 5’s at Stroud Green Primary School on a stencil and screen printing project. As you can see from the photos, the kids learnt a new skill and did some brilliant work. As well as creating the banner and printing on individual pieces of material, some also choose to print on t-shirts.
The screen printing does resonate, in some ways, with what I do now, but it’s also nice to be transported back to my former life as a printer both in art college and when I first arrived here in London. Below is a couple I did earlier – 29 years earlier to be precise!
John O'Leary 