Balbusso Twins, le gemelle dell'illustrazione

Anna ed Elena Balbusso, gemelle, vivono e lavorano a Milano.

Diplomate in pittura all’Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, dal 1994 operano come illustratrici freelance per la pubblicità e l’editoria sia in Italia che all’estero.

Dal 1998 illustrano libri per ragazzi e copertine con varie case editrici.

Dal 2003 lavorano con testate francesi nell’ambito della comunicazione e dei magazine.

Nel 2006 hanno iniziato nuove collaborazioni nell’editoria per ragazzi in Francia ed in Corea del Sud.

Chiaki Okada | Children's book illustrator

Chiaki Okada / 岡田 千晶 is an illustrator and author of children’s books from Osaka, Japan.

Her gentle, calming artwork was selected at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2010 and she has since illustrated books by authors from around the world.

Her first picture book published in English, For All the Stars Across the Sky, was released in 2019. She lives in Japan.

Shamsia Hassani, 1988 | Afghanistan's First Female Street Artist

"I want to colour over the bad memories of war on the walls, and if I colour over these bad memories, then I erase [war] from people's minds.

I want to make Afghanistan famous for its art, not its war" - Shamsia Hassani.

Afghan artist Shamsia Hassani risks all to bring color to war-torn Kabul with her street art and murals.

Born April 1988, she is the first female graffiti artist of Afghanistan.

Through her artworks, Shamsia portrays Afghan women in a male dominant society.

Wisława Szymborska | La memoria / Memory finally

La memoria finalmente ha quel che cercava.

Si è trovata mia madre, mi è apparso mio padre.

Ho sognato per loro un tavolo, due sedie. Si sono seduti.

Erano miei di nuovo e per me di nuovo vivi.

Sono balenati con le due lampade sul viso

all'imbrunire, come a Rembrandt.

Victor Nizovtsev

Antonia Pozzi | Ti do me stessa, 1934

Bellezza

Ti do me stessa,

le mie notti insonni,

i lunghi sorsi

di cielo e stelle - bevuti

sulle montagne,

la brezza dei mari percorsi

verso albe remote.

Harold Speed

Love Letters | Gustave Flaubert to Louise Colet

Quando Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) incontra Louise Colet (1810-1876) aveva appena 24 anni. Lui aspirante scrittore e Lei, poetessa già affermata, più grande di lui di oltre dieci anni, sposata con il flautista Hippolyte Colet, amante del filosofo Victor Cousin, frequentatrice dei migliori salotti e spregiudicata.

Fu a Parigi, nell'atelier dello scultore Pradier, che il romanziere incontrò, nel giugno 1846, Louise mentre posava come modella.

Il giorno dopo Flaubert torna in atelier ed i giorni e le notti seguenti li passa con lei, in un vortice di passioni.

I due avranno una relazione molto coinvolgente, portata avanti fra contrasti dovuti in particolare al desiderio di indipendenza di Flaubert, che conduce una vita giovanile abbastanza libertina.

James Tissot | Young Lady in a Boat

Constance Marie Charpentier | Melancholy, 1801

Constance Marie Charpentier (1767-1849) was a French painter.

She specialized in genre scenes and portraits, mainly of children and women.

She was also known as Constance Marie Bondelu.

Constance-Marie Charpentier | Melancholy, 1801 | Musée de Picardie, Amiens

Anthonore Christensen | Flowers painter

Anthonie Eleonore Christensen (1849-1926), generally known as Anthonore Christensen, née Tscherning was a Danish flower painter.

She exhibited from 1867 at Charlottenborg, winning the medal of the year in 1893.

As a painting teacher, her students included Queen Louise and Queen Olga of Greece.

Hafsa Idrees, 1992 | Finger painter

Hafsa Idrees is an Pakistani painter and writer born in Islamabad.

- "Art has always been close to my heart and even though I have not received a formal education in any particular genre, drawing/painting is an important part of my life. Since school, I have been experimenting with and enjoying different styles, media and techniques".

"I started with Arabic calligraphy at the age of 10 but I soon realized that I enjoyed painting and drawing too. My subjects then were things and people from my immediate surroundings but with time I started to explore different kinds of paints, pencils, materials and subjects".

A Love Letter from Balzac to Countess Ewelina Hańska

My beloved angel,

"I am nearly mad about you, as much as one can be mad: I cannot bring together two ideas that you do not interpose yourself between them.

I can no longer think of nothing but you. In spite of myself, my imagination carries me to you. I grasp you, I kiss you, I caress you, a thousand of the most amorous caresses take possession of me. As for my heart, there you will always be - very much so. I have a delicious sense of you there.

But my God, what is to become of me, if you have deprived me of my reason?

This is a monomania which, this morning, terrifies me. I rise up every moment say to myself, ‘Come, I am going there!’ Then I sit down again, moved by the sense of my obligations.

Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller | Portrait of Madame Ewelina Hańska, 1835

Ellen Montalba | Dreams

Ellen Emeline Montalba (1842-1912) was a British artist. She was born in Bath, England, one of four daughters of the Swedish-born artist Anthony Rubens Montalba and Emeline.

She and her three sisters all attained high repute as artists.

The 1871 British census shows Anthony Montalba living at 19 Arundel Gardens, Notting Hill, in London, with four daughters, all artists.

The Montalba sisters were regular contributors to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition during the 1870s.

Wisława Szymborska | Domande poste a me stessa / The questions you ask yourself

Qual è il contenuto del sorriso

e d’una stretta di mano?

Nel dare il benvenuto

non sei mai lontana

come a volte è lontano

l’uomo dall’uomo

quando dà un giudizio ostile

a prima vista?

Wisława Szymborska (1923-2012)

Beryl Cook | Naïve painter

Beryl Cook, OBE (1926-2008) was a British artist best known for her original and instantly recognisable paintings.

Often comical, her works pictured people whom she encountered in everyday life, including people enjoying themselves in pubs, girls shopping or out on a hen night, drag queen shows or a family picnicking by the seaside or abroad.

Lettere d'amore | Gabriele D’Annunzio ad Eleonora Duse: Rimani!

Rimani! Riposati accanto a me.

Non andare.

Io ti veglierò.

Io ti proteggerò.

Eleonora Duse e Gabriele D’Annunzio

Anne Hoenig | Figurative painter

Anne Hoenig is a figurative painter from CA.

She shows mainly in Berlin.

Her method leans on renaissance oil technique, depicting intense, intimate moments.

The paintings of Anne Hoenig are defined by nuances and a specific semi-darkness.

Wisława Szymborska | Elogio dei sogni / In Praise of Dreams

In sogno

dipingo come Vermeer.

Parlo correntemente il greco

e non solo con vivi.

Guido l’automobile,

che mi obbedisce.

Caro Guarinos

Krystyna Róż-Pasek, 1981

Krystyna Róż-Pasek was born in Gorlice.

She raduate of the Fine Arts High School in Tarnów - weaving profile.

In the years 2004-2009 she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow.

She currently lives and develops her work in Krakow.

Soon Warren | Watercolor painter

Soon Young Warren is a highly awarded artist, teacher and workshop instructor nationally and internationally.

She was born in South Korea and immigrated to the United States in 1987.

A full time artist, Soon has an associate degree in commercial art from Thomas Nelson Community College in Hampton, Virginia, and is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society, American Watercolor Society, Southern Watercolor Society, Texas Watercolor Society and Society of Watercolor Artists.

Marguerite Godin (1867-1936)

Marguerite Godin was a French artist who studied under Gustave Boulanger, Léon Bonnat and Jules Lefebvre.

Marguerite Godin exhibited at the Salon of French Artists from 1887-1912.

She received a bronze medal and the Marie Bashkirtseff Prize in 1889 and was a member of the Académie Julian in 1890.

Katrina Pallon | Art Nouveau style painter

Katrina Pallon is a visual artist whose strong imagery and conceptual vocabulary inform her distinctive paintings and drawings that utilise a variety of mediums.

She has actively exhibited under private art galleries and public group exhibitions in Manila, New York, Singapore, and Japan.

She also works as an illustrator and muralist.