home by carson ellis + her illustration work

Home by Carson Ellis (2015).

This. Picture. Book.

It explores homes. All kinds.

 

 

It seamlessly moves from country to city to sea. And then it travels to faraway homes, to unusual homes, to homes of animals and even fairy tale characters.

 

 

 

All of it portrayed through the most beautiful, majestic artwork. Hints of an old world and new. Flora and fauna and textures. Pink noses and rosy cheeks. The most wonderful details. The smoothest, matte paper.

The color palette, earthy tones with pops of red is just gorgeous.

There are homes we know.

Homes we’ve heard of.

Imagined homes.

Homes we can’t even imagine.

French homes. Atlantians’ homes. A Kenyan blacksmith’s home. A Slovakian duchess’s.

It starts and ends with Carson Ellis’s own home. And Carson Ellis in it. And not to be missed is that mourning dove that carries us through the book, that leaves its nest-home on the title page and makes appearances here and there. That bird is our guide, our proxy.

And one of my favorite things? This book asks questions. It doesn’t have all the answers about all the homes. Some of them are mysterious, for us to decide.

This is a book to behold.

To snuggle into, to make yourself at home in.

 

HOME. Copyright © 2015 by Carson Ellis. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

 

 

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Carson Ellis’s work has been on my radar for a few years via her middle grade novel covers/illustrations and her work for the Decemberists (aka her husband’s band; he’s the writer of Wildwood too). You may have already known her work too. Here’s some of her stuff to admire!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images via Carson Ellis’s website.