I am still in awe of Robert Ingpen's artistic talent. But not only his art: also his productivity, his research and his fidelity to detail. He is a sort of modern combination of NC Wyeth and Arthur Rackham...and I have always loved their illustrations. I guess, it was being exposed to such illustrations in children's books as a child that makes me like his work so much today. I just had a look at the cost of some of his illustrations that are for sale at auction and they seem to be selling for under $400...which seems rather cheap to me...given the quality and fame of the artist. Admittedly , these are not the original works from his published books. ..There is quite a nice text accompanying the various illustrations and one gets a small insight into the way that Ingpen works. (I like his flat-plan layout page). But I really would have liked to see more pictures of Ingpen himself at work and heard more from him about his technique. He mentions watercolour and tempera but I'm not sure if he has used crayon or oils with some of his works. Certainly, with his teddy bear picture he has used pencil and pastel. So he is obviously adept with a range of materials.
I first came across his work when I was with the CSIRO and I kept some of the magazines for years.....not sure whether I still have some. And I must say, that I was amused to see in his story of the Poppycock that he refers to his characters as Hairy Peruvians. I wonder if it is because (as he says) he saw dolls like this in a museum in Peru.....or because there is a variety of Subterranean clover called "Hairy Peruvian".... because it does have hairs and it comes from Peru. I think the CSIRO was working with newly introduced species like these in the 1960's. Anyway, I feel some affinity with Ingpen because of this shared experience with the CSIRO and agriculture. I seem to remember some illustrations of sub-clover varieties...almost certainly done by Ingpen. (I think there were issues with high oestrogen content of some of these clovers ..and they were messing up the reproductive cycles of sheep). The book is beautifully put together...very balanced and, as one would expect, superbly illustrated. Five stars from me. ( )