Joan Mitchell Paints a Symphony
It’s 1983, and American artist Joan Mitchell is in her studio outside Paris, transforming her emotions and memories into a symphony of colours and shapes. Inspired by her friend’s description of an idyllic hidden valley in France, Mitchell creates 21 massive paintings—her Grande Vallée series —bursting with vibrant, energising hues. But she doesn’t paint the valley’s flowers and meadows. She paints a feeling about them—abundance, freedom, liveliness—creating a harmonious blend of drips, splashes, and brushstrokes in rainbow colours. When the paint dries, it's time to share her valley with the world.
This inspiring, poetic picture book about an influential yet lesser-known American artist provides a snapshot of a creator who deserves as much acclaim as better-known Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock or Willem de Kooning. Author Lisa Rogers shares both the despair and delight Mitchell experienced throughout her career, while acclaimed illustrator Stacy Innerst’s bright artwork captures the movement and energy of Mitchell’s work, as her paintings develop from page to page.
Stacy Innerst is a painter, children's book artist, and educator. His books have been honored with the Sydney Taylor Award for The Book Rescuer: How a Mensch from Massachusetts Saved Yiddish Literature for Generations to Come, the New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children's Books Award for Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Case of RBG vs. Inequality, the SCBWI Golden Kite for Picture Book Illustration for The Music in George’s Head.