Gilbert, Yvonne 1951–

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Gilbert, Yvonne 1951–

(Anne Yvonne Gilbert)

Personal

Born April 7, 1951, in Wallsend, Northumberland, England; daughter of Anne Doreen Gilbert; married David Edward Owen (deceased); married Danny Nanos (a graphic designer and art director); children: Thomas Edward Gilbert Owen. Education: Attended Newcastle College of Art, 1969; Liverpool College of Art, B.A., 1973.

Addresses

Office—6A Belle Grove Ter., Spital Tongues, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4LL, England. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Illustrator and graphic artist. Freelance illustrator of book covers, picture books, greeting cards, postage stamps, and china, beginning 1978. Teacher at work-shops; lecturer in art at a technical college, 1973-78; Manchester Polytechnic, Manchester, England, external assessor for CNAA course in illustration, 1981-85. Exhibitions: Work exhibited at Bluecoat Gallery, Liver-pool, England; Hamilton's Gallery, London, England; Neville Gallery, Bath, England; London Illustrators Art Gallery; in European Illustration annual exhibitions; and for Scottish and Welsh Art Council. Work included in permanent collections.

Awards, Honors

Golden Stamp Award, 1985; Revel Cumberland Award for Best Use of Colored Pencils; British Philatelic Bureau, commissioned artist for British Christmas stamps, 1984, 1994.

Illustrator

Katharine Mary Briggs, Abbey Lubbers, Banshees, and Beggars: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fairies, Pantheon Books (New York, NY), 1979.

(And selector) Baby's Book of Lullabies and Cradle Songs, Dial Books (New York, NY), 1990.

Miriam Chaikin, reteller, Children's Bible Stories: From Genesis to Daniel, Dial Books (New York, NY), 1993.

Rebecca Hickox, Per and the Dala Horse, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1995.

Vivian French, A Christmas Star Called Hannah, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 1997.

M.C. Helldorfer, Night of the White Stag, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1999.

(Under name Anne Yvonne Gilbert) The Night before Christmas: Classic Stories and Poems with a Christmas Message, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2000.

Billy Joel, Goodnight, My Angel: A Lullaby (includes audiocassette), Scholastic (New York, NY), 2004.

(Under name Anne Yvonne Gilbert) Hans Christian Anderson, The Wild Swans, Barefoot Books (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

(With others) Dugald Steer, editor, Wizardology, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

George R.R. Martin, The Ice Dragon, new edition, Star-scape (New York, NY), 2006.

(With Helen Ward and Ian Andrew) Dugald Steer, editor, Pirateology, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2006.

Kathy-Jo Wargin, reteller, Frog Prince (based on the story by the Brothers Grimm), Ann Arbor Media Group (Ann Arbor, MI) 2007.

Contributor of illustrations to books, including The Iron Wolf, Allen Lane (London, England), 1980, published as The Unbroken Web: Stories and Fables, Crown (New York, NY), 1980; and DK Discoveries: Tutankhamun: The Life and Death of a Pharaoh, DK Publishing (New York, NY), 1998.

Sidelights

Yvonne Gilbert's work as an illustrator ranges over a wide spectrum of advertising and design projects, including hundreds of book covers as well as greeting cards, limited-edition collectibles, and stamps issued by the British Post Office. Gilbert has been praised for her detailed, decorative images, and her pastel-hued art-work is exhibited at galleries throughout her native England. Inspired by artists such as Arthur Rackham, Maxfield Parish, and other artist at work during the late 1800s, Gilbert's media of choice is a challenging one: colored pencil.

While Gilbert's work first appeared in the pages of British children's books in the late 1970s, 1990's Baby's Book of Lullabies and Cradle Songs was the book that introduced her to an American readership. Since providing this work, which Gilbert illustrated and also edited, her art has graced picture books such as Rebecca Hickox's Per and the Dala Horse, Vivian French's A Christmas Star Called Hannah, M.C. Helldorfer's Night of the White Stag, and Billy Joel's Goodnight, My Angel: A Lullaby. Other books featuring her artwork include a new edition of Hans Christian Andersen's The Wild Swans, which Booklist contributor Carolyn Phelan praised as a "graceful, dramatic version" of the classic work due to Gilbert's "detailed" and "beguiling" colored-pencil art.

In Per and the Dala Horse three brothers inherit gifts from their father and each benefits from his as his character allows. While the oldest brother receives a farm, complete with a work horse and plow, and the second brother receives a fine horse, the youngest brother inherits a gift that seems minor by comparison: the painted wooden horse of the title. Though the youngest brother appears to have been short changed, the dala horse saves the day when trolls steal an important religious treasure. Cynthia K. Richey, writing in School Library Journal, likened Gilbert's use of intricate details and borders in Per and the Dala Horse to that of artist Jan Brett, and added that Gilbert's choice of color "effectively evoke[s] the setting" of the Eastern European tale.

Gilbert's work for A Christmas Star Called Hannah brings to life a young girl's experience being cast as an evening star in her school's Christmas pageant. When it is discovered that the doll that was to represent Baby Jesus has been forgotten, Hannah comes to the rescue with her own baby brother and becomes the true star of the production. In Booklist, Ilene Cooper remarked on the "photographic quality" of Gilbert's art, and a School Library Journal reviewer concluded that the illustrations "enliven [French's] … story and lend personality to its characters."

Set in medieval times, Helldorfer's Night of the White Stag tells the story of a boy hunting rabbits in the king's woods. When the boy encounters a mysterious blind man who is forlorn over the death of his son in the same war that orphaned the boy, man and boy become companions. When they join together to hunt for a legendary white stag, miraculous changes follow. As Tracy Taylor noted in School Library Journal, Gilbert's illustrations for the book are "realistically and gracefully rendered."

When pop musician Billy Joel wrote his first picture book, Gilbert was selected to illustrate the text. Goodnight, My Angel is actually a song Joel wrote for his young daughter, and Gilbert pairs it with "idealized images of the long-lashed heroine and luminous landscapes [that] echo the unabashedly sentimental strains of Joel's song," according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

Gilbert talked with Logan Kaufman of Adventures Underground online regarding her technique. "I love history and costume, arms, armour, etc. so I have a lot of books on related subjects," she explained. "Wherever I go I visit castles, palaces and museums, storing the information for when I may use it." In addition to collecting books, Gilbert also collects costumes and props, which she use when friends, family members, and sometimes even the odd passer-by model before the camera. "They have to be prepared to dress up in bits of material fashioned into costumes, holding bin-lids and broom-handles as shield and sword," she explained. "I have a collection of photographs of people looking very strange—lying on the floor to appear to be flying, sitting astride sofa backs to appear to be horse-riding." Although her choice of colored pencil as a medium is unusual, it is one Gilbert gravitated to early on. She continues to be devoted to colored pencil because of the velvety texture that results by using hard leads on smooth paper. "Even as a very small child I couldn't abide mess," she admitted to Kaufman. "Hence the pencils even though they do make me tear my hair out."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 1995, Carolyn Phelan, review of Per and the Dala Horse, p. 564; November 1, 1997, Ilene Cooper, review of A Christmas Star Called Han-

nah, p. 480; December 1, 1999, Marta Segal, review of Night of the White Stag, p. 711; April 1, 2005, Carolyn Phelan, review of The Wild Swans, p. 1364.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2004, review of Goodnight, My Angel: A Lullaby, p. 2004; September 15, 2006, review of The Ice Dragon, p. 961.

Publishers Weekly, October 6, 1997, review of A Christmas Star Called Hannah, p. 55; October 11, 2004, review of Goodnight, My Angel, p. 78.

School Library Journal, January, 1996, Cynthia K. Richey, review of Per and the Dala Horse, pp. 84-85; October, 1997, review of A Christmas Star Called Hannah, p. 41; November, 1999, Tracy Taylor, review of The Night of the White Stag; October, 2000, Tracy Taylor, review of The Night before Christmas: Classic Stories and Poems with a Christmas Message, p. 61; February, 2005, Jane Marino, review of Goodnight, My Angel, p. 104; February, 2007, Eva Mitnick, review of The Ice Dragon, p. 92.