A journal by artist and designer John Coulthart.
This is another of those posts in which I brag about finding an old book in a charity shop for a lot less than you’d have to pay for it online. But it does give me the opportunity to say something about American writer/artist Norman Rubington and his alter ego Akbar Del Piombo, something I … Continue reading “Fuzz Against Junk & The Hero Maker”
There’s always more Poe. Selected Tales of Mystery was published in 1909, and is one of several illustrated editions produced by British artist Byam Shaw (1872–1919), a painter like Frederick Simpson Coburn who was better suited to the one-off canvas than the illustrated text. There ought to be a term for this kind of illustration—”The … Continue reading “Byam Shaw’s illustrated Poe”
Dreamland by Frederick Simpson Coburn. By a route obscure and lonely, Haunted by ill angels only, Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT, On a black throne reigns upright, I have reached these lands but newly From an ultimate dim Thule— From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime, Out of SPACE—Out of TIME. Dreamland by Edgar … Continue reading “The Purloined Eidolon”
I’ve waited months to write about this book in the run-up to Halloween. Several years ago I wrote a series of pre-Halloween posts about the illustrators of Edgar Allan Poe, with the final entry containing a lone illustration for The Tell-Tale Heart by Martin van Maële (1863–1926). At the time van Maële’s book was unavailable … Continue reading “Martin van Maële’s illustrated Poe”
Cover art: Group X, No. 1, Altarpiece (1915) by Hilma af Klint. Design by Paileen Currie. A surprise arrival in today’s post, the occult art compendium by S. Elizabeth which I would have wanted to read even if it didn’t contain one of my pictures: From theosophy and kabbalah, to the zodiac and alchemy; spiritualism and ceremonial magic, … Continue reading “The Art of the Occult”