In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Ron BrooksAustralia ⋆ Illustrator
  • Samantha Christensen

"I began to think of the picture-book form as almost some kind of theatre, a theatre in which the reader sits, quietly absorbed, while there before them … a whole world opens up."

Ron Brooks

Ron Brooks has been creating resonant illustrative works for the past forty years, and he has asserted himself as one of the most influential Australian illustrators. Born in Pambula, NSW, Australia in 1948, Brooks has always been in touch with his artistic side, spending his childhood drawing the nature in which he was immersed. Practicing techniques in book illustration, painting, print-making, and sculpture, he currently lives in the Huon Valley in Tasmania, and he is open about his difficult path to artistic success. Brooks majored in Illustration at the Swinburne Institute of Technology and Royal Melbourne Institute from 1964 to 1969, and soon after began freelancing in publishing and advertising. He published his first children's picturebook, The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek (text by Jenny Wagner) in 1973, which launched his career in illustration, winning a number of awards and having been translated into several languages.

Brooks has a knack for delving deep into children's narratives and bringing to life unwritten stories embedded in the texts. He is masterful in his ability to distinguish the themes and tones of the stories he illustrates, and brings these emotional responses to life through captivating and expressive imagery. Brooks's work seems to leap from the page, and his firm grasp of color and its interconnectedness with textual mood allow him to express the deepest emotional responses to the narratives he illustrates. His art deals with a wide variety of themes, ranging from betrayal, grief, and regret to friendship, freedom, and identity, and while he often expresses serious and difficult aspects of human life, he does so with artistic grace and absorbing images. Brooks has a signature style—colorful, textured backgrounds with thick brushstrokes and prominent line work—but his passion for expressing the deep emotional undertones of the text makes each of his works unique.

Brooks's first literary award was the Children's Book Council of Australia's Picture Book of the Year Award for The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek in 1974, and many more followed. He was on the Honors List of the Guardian Award for Children's Literature in 1978 for John Brown and Rose and the Midnight Cat, and won the IBBY Brazilian Section Best Translation for Children Award in 2006 for Fox. His picture-books have been translated into many languages, including Chinese, Serbian, Mongolian, Hebrew, and German, and his works continue to influence young readers in Australia and beyond.

Selected Bibliography

The Coat. Text Julie Hunt. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2012. Print.
The Dream. Text Margaret Wild. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2011. Print.
Fox. 2000. Text Margaret Wild. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2010. Print.
Old Pig. 1995. Text Margaret Wild. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2009. Print.
On the Day You Were Born. Text Margaret Wild. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2013. Print. [End Page 4]
...

pdf

Share