This biography looks at the life of surrealist artist Leonora Carrington as she refused to follow conventions and instead followed her heart, imagination, and spirit around the globe, meeting artists and expressing herself artistically.

This was a very interesting book that highlights a less well-known but still fascinating artist. I'm embarrassed to say that despite my love of surrealist art, I was not previously familiar with Carrington (a product of art history focusing heavily on male artists). This book was a lovely introduction to the person and her art.

The illustrations are absolutely fantastic and a good fit. As the illustrator notes, "the specific challenge for me was to convey the spirit, themes, and sensibility [Carrington] explored in her creative output without attempting to re-create literally any of her actual imagery." Mission accomplished; these illustrations are beautiful and do capture the spirit and color palette of Carrington's works. ( )

In this short expose, author Michelle Markel, and illustrator Amanda Hall tell the story of the visionary artist and painter, Leanora Carrington from her time growing up in England, to her fleeing WW2 unto Mexico to start an illustrious career as an artist. The pictures in this book are wonderful depictions of Leanora's surrealist art and depict a soul who was motivated to dispel the notion that women did not have a place in the world of art just like men. I love this book for a number of reasons but most importantly for the colorful surrealist depictions of her art. It will inspire young people, young girls like my daughter to always never let go of your passion for the universe and how to connect to it. ( )

Easy to read and understand.
I had never heard of Leonora Carrington. ( )

'....she became the woman she wanted to be."

Unbeknownst to me, Leonora Carrington was actually one of the few female surrealists of that cultural movement which took off in the 1920's. This colorful book demonstrates how her vivid imagination was honed by her grandmother's fantastical stories, which led her to expand her ideas on canvas. Her distraught parents saw another kind of future for her but she saw things differently, in more ways than one. Her travels throughout the world and the contemporaries she became acquainted enriched her life and contributed to the life she wanted to live.
I'd recommend this to little kids everywhere but especially young girls. The message "Do what you love, love what you do" and everything else falls in line. ( )

Author/illustrator team Michelle Markel and Amanda Hall, who also collaborated on The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau, join forces again in this picture-book biography of surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. Born into a well-to-do English family, Carrington's parents had hopes that she would lead a conventional life, becoming a "proper" young lady. Instead, her unusual way of looking at the world, and her desire to create, evident from the time she was four, and would scribble on the walls, eventually led her to art school, and then into the circle of surrealist artists. Living for a time in Paris, she eventually fled to Mexico during WWII, here becoming friends with fellow woman surrealist Remedios Varo. Eventually, thanks to an art collector who arranged for a show in New York City, Carrington's work became more famous. She continued to create her fantastic paintings and sculptures all her life, eventually dying in Mexico City in 2011...

Remedios Varo is my absolute favorite, of all the surrealists, and Leonora Carrington, whose style is very similar, comes a close second, so when I saw Out of This World: The Surreal Art of Leonora Carrington, I was absolutely thrilled! I hadn't read the earlier book by this author/illustrator team (something I will have to rectify), so I had no expectations going in. What I discovered was a simple but engaging text and absolutely gorgeous artwork. Amanda Hall really manages to capture the enchantment, the eldritch charm of Carrington's work here. She mentions in her brief afterword that it was a challenge to create visuals that had the feeling of her subject's work, without simply reproducing any of the images from that work. I think she certainly has succeeded! I am so very glad to see this artist being presented to children - I wish there was a children's book about Remedios Varo! - and I appreciated the way that author Markel emphasizes the ways that these two artists' work addressed the woman's experience, within the surrealist field. Recommended to all young art-lovers, and to anyone looking for excellent new picture-book biographies. ( )