Cathie Felstead, born 1954 in Welwyn Garden City,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, in the UK, is an English

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

Early life and education

Felstead attended Chelsea School of Art where she gained a BA in

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

. She then studied illustration at the Royal College of Art, graduating with an MA in 1980.

Career

Felstead commenced her career by creating designs for book covers. Among the authors whose books she worked on were William Golding (including '' Rites of Passage''), Iris Murdoch (including '' The Philosopher's Pupil''), Isabel Allende,

Nadine Gordimer Nadine Gordimer (20 November 192313 July 2014) was a South African writer and political activist. She received the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognized as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writin ...

, and Alice Walker. She has produced artwork for advertising campaigns, packaging, T-shirts, opera, ballet, television, magazines, greeting cards and books. Felstead's commercial clients have included British Airways, Channel 4,

Ballet Rambert Rambert (known as Rambert Dance Company before 2014) is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it exerted a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingd ...

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...

Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. History Founded at 17 Broad Street, Oxford, as the Oxford Co ...

, Lynx (the anti fur trade organisation), Walker Books, Barclays Bank, the

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

s, Penguin Books, ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...

'', and The Body Shop.Felstead on the 'Children's Book Illustration' website
/ref> She also created the cover illustration for John Martyn's 1984 album '' Sapphire''. Her artwork has been shown in many exhibitions in Britain and abroad. She was runner-up in the Mother Goose Award for her illustrations in ''A Caribbean Dozen'' and has also received awards for book illustration in the United States. Reviewers have praised the wide range of media and styles which Felstead uses in her work, as well as the way they "realize and complement" the texts. ''A Caribbean Dozen'', one reviewer said, "is made even more attractive by the wide-ranging artwork of Ms. Felstead. Her styles sweep from collages to pastels, watercolors to oils to inks. Some illustrations are bold and primitive, others impressionistic." ''The Circle of Days'', an adaptation of Canticle of the Sun, is made "outstanding y.. the immediacy of Ms. Lindbergh's verse and the beauty of Ms. Felstead's collage paintings, which combine childlike cut-paper images with earthy watercolour and gouache backgrounds. Just like the writing, what at first appears simple is actually quite complex." In ''Who Made Me?'', a reviewer found, "The art matches the text in its mood--it, too, is reverent but childlike. Mixed-media illustrations combining paints with delicate cut-paper work, they capture the awe-inspiring vastness of the African landscape as well as the intimacy and warmth of Zanele's relationship to her homeland and her seven friends." In ''Flamingo Dream'', another reviewer said, "The art is a wonderful collage mix: objects, torn paper, and childlike drawings colored in pencil or crayon, echo the honesty and realism in the text and are exactly what this little girl would have drawn or collected." One reviewer said about ''Earthshake - Poems from the Ground Up'', "Felstead’s energetic collages of maps, tiny photocopied figures, colored pencil, and paint marvelously evocate action and mood." Cathie Felstead lives in

Ashwell, Hertfordshire Ashwell is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire situated north-east of Baldock. History To the southwest of the village is Arbury Banks, the remains of an Iron Age hill fort which have been largely removed by agricultural activity. I ...

Bibliography

*1994 - ''A Caribbean Dozen: Poems from Caribbean Poets'', John Agard and Grace Nichols, editors; Cathie Felstead, illustrator *1998 - ''The Circle of Days'',

Reeve Lindbergh Reeve Morrow Lindbergh (born October 2, 1945) is an American author from Caledonia County, Vermont, who grew up in Darien, Connecticut as the daughter of aviator Charles Lindbergh (19021974) and author Anne Morrow Lindbergh (19062001). She gra ...

, author; Cathie Felstead, illustrator *2000 - ''Who Made Me?'', Shirley Tullock, author; Cathie Felstead, illustrator *2000 - ''Big Wolf and Little Wolf'', Sharon Phillips Denslow, author; Cathie Felstead, illustrator *2002 - ''Flamingo Dream'', Donna J. Napoli, author; Cathie Felstead, illustrator *2003 - ''Earthshake - Poems from the Ground Up'', Lisa Westberg Peters, author; Cathie Felstead, illustrator *2006 - ''An Island Grows'', Lola M. Schaefer, author; Cathie Felstead, illustrator *2007 - ''Family Lullaby'', Jody Fickes Shapiro, author; Cathie Felstead, illustrator

References

External links

Felstead on the HarperCollins websiteFelstead on Rogan's Books Children's Book IllustrationBooks illustrated by Felstead
{{DEFAULTSORT:Felstead, Cathie 1954 births Living people British illustrators English illustrators Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts People from Welwyn Garden City People from Ashwell, Hertfordshire