Artists on Artists

Paintings and Illustrations: what illustrators do between projects
Anna Vojtech and Giles Laroche

Event: The Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (seARTS) of Gloucester continues its Artists on Artists series on October 20, 2005 at 7 p.m. Artist/illustrators Anna Vojtech and Giles Laroche will show both their illustration and fine art work. The accompanying discussion will address the similarities and differences between art and illustration processes and results.

When: Thursday, October 20, 2005, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. (member reception, 6:30 pm)

Where: West End Theater, 2 Main Street, Gloucester

Admission: Free to members, $5 for non-members. Refreshments will be served.

Who: Anna Vojtech has illustrated many books for children, including “The First Strawberries”, “Blow Away Soon” and "The Song of the Camels". Her illustrations for “Ten Flashing Fireflies” won a Gold Medal from NPPA. "Tough Beginnings" was chosen by SSLI as the Best Book for Science for Children. Anna's interpretation of the nursery rhyme “Over in the Meadow” has been published in seven languages. Her last book is “All Things Bright and Beautiful”. She is also well known for her botanical paintings which have been exhibited both in the United States and internationally. A collection of them was published as “Wild Flowers for All Seasons.” In her illustrations Anna combines her love for storytelling and for Nature.

Vojtech grew up in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in what is now the Czech Republic. She studied art and toy design at the School of Applied Arts and animation film and graphics at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague. After the Soviet invasion of her country in 1968 she attended the Royal Academy in Antwerp, Belgium and the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg, Germany. She now lives and works on Cape Ann.

Giles Laroche, born in Berlin, New Hampshire, has been drawing for as long as he can remember. He attended Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Massachusetts, where he later worked for twelve years in the children’s art program. He now conducts workshops as an artist-in-residence in schools throughout the Northeast. Laroche’s home and illustration studio are in Salem, MA, and his art studio in a two-hundred-year-old barn in Washington, New Hampshire. In his art studio, surrounded by the mountains he sketched as a child, he creates abstract paintings that have been exhibited in galleries throughout New England.

Larouche calls his illustration technique “paper relief” because of its three-dimensional effect. Publishers Weekly has said of the illustrations that, “The art is mind-bogglingly good: cut-paper compositions that look three-dimensional on the page. Laroche works with an architect’s exactitude and eye for the majestic perspective.”

For more information: call Michele Miller 978-283-9923 or write Susan Erony at erony@searts.org

The Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (seARTS) is a recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Adams Arts Fund for Cultural Economic Development.

Past Artists on Artists Lectures