Cindy Revell works
HOW, WHAT, WHY BIO
THE HOW, WHAT AND WHY
The start - As a child I spent a lot of time with books, art and my imagination - I still do. Art was the only thing I seriously considered as a career and it suits this creative self perfectly!
Fine art – Making use of my childhood imagination. My oil paintings include inquisitive birds and flowers as a common element in a menagerie of uncommonly coloured creatures. These characters come to life in gardens, interiors and still lifes where they fuse in an exuberant and vibrantly colourful mix that implies ‘what if’ and ‘anything is possible’. My work began as realism but morphed into the whimsical paintings that I create now.
Illustration - Bringing whimsy to calendars, packaging, wine bottles, CD covers, books, magazines, billboards and numerous children’s books all over North America.
Inspiration and Influences - The Dutch artists and numerous old masters have long fascinated me - the light, the compositions! The inspired informality and spontaneity of primitivism and folk art while the pattern and design of medieval, Asian and eastern art all remind me of the powerful way that line, colour and shape convey so much.
THE WHERE, WHEN AND WHO
Art Education - I received my Environmental Graphic Design diploma in Edmonton, AB in 1987. I took several illustration courses and went on to explore fine art through numerous courses and workshops in Canada and the US.
Kudos - In 2001 I was Shortlisted for Governor General's award for children's book illustration. I've been honoured with several awards but few were as exciting as the blue ribbon prize I won for the drawing of a cat I did as a kid. Even back then I had a thing for cats.
Some of my clients - Disney, L.A. Times, Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, Better Homes and Gardens, Cornell University, Penguin Putnam, and Scholastic.
Where my work is - I'm fairly solitary but my work gets around: in public, corporate, and private collections in Canada and the US, in numerous juried exhibitions and traveling museum exhibitions, touring shows and galleries.
Affiliations - I'm a senior member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and member of the Oil Painters of America.