Mother Holly
This is a retelling by John Warren Stewig of a lesser-known story by the Brothers Grimm.
This is the first illustration I attempted for Mother Holly. I was deeply influenced by the landscapes by Hans Memling and other Flemish painters of that era. I could not stop working on this painting. Once I finished and realized how long I spent on it, I was worried that the book would take me years to complete. And I was right. It took me four years to finish 26 paintings. Little did I know this book would fall under the radar as it was published in September, 2001. Watercolor and gouache
This is a scene from Mother Holly where the selfish and lazy sister Blanche is visiting Mother Holly’s house and refuses to do the housework that rewarded Rose. I scoured Dutch master interior paintings for this piece, and had so much fun placing odd things around the room to be discovered. And why wouldn’t Mother Holly have a parrot? Watercolor and gouache
This is my favorite painting I have done to date. It is the first interior illustration from my book, Mother Holly. Maybe the best part of this painting was all the research on 18th century French farmhouses and costume. I had books open all over the place. I almost lost this piece in a recent house fire, but luckily only the frame was damaged. Watercolor and gouache
This is an interior painting from Mother Holly, where Rose, after jumping down the well to retrieve a dropped spindle, first encounters the magical and mysterious Mother Holly with her terrible teeth at her home. Watercolor and gouache
Watercolor and gouache
