Sunday Safari - Couch Surfing

 Tom Vroman, Alexander, 1964, thanks to art.crazed

Susann Stoebe

BM Mikhailov, illustration from Reluctant film stars, 1987

from polny_shkaf's amazing vintage children's book collection

 Morris Hirshfield, Angora cat, 1937, thanks to Arthur van Kruining

 Clement Hurd, Little Dog, Dreaming, 1967, thanks to my vintage book collection

Natsuo Ikegami

Mark Ulriksen

Juliane Carole Wenzl

Darla Jackson, They were plotting...

Sweet Mess, Nest Down 

Amber Alexander, Byron

Silvia Bautista, Zorro

Domenico Gnoli

WIldLifePrints, Squirreled Away

Mad Men & Crazy Critters - Happy Days

I am always drawn to the light-hearted humour and bright color palette of mid-century

illustrated posters. Their simple, playful and optimistic approach to advertising

is exemplified by the work of Hervé Morvan, who along with his friend and competitor

 Raymond Savignac defined the style of French commercial art in the 1950s.

 Refrigerateur Brandt, ca. 1950

Chocolat Lanvin, ca. 1950

Morvan was born in 1917, and after studying in Paris at the Ecole des Arts Appliqués, 

started his professional career in 1934 painting film ads on movie theatre façades. 

In 1942 he created his first movie poster, which was followed by over a hundred more. 

Among them were cinema classics such as The Grand Illusion, Les Enfants du Paradis and Gigi. 

In 1945 he took as assistant the young poster artist Léo Kouper, and the two collaborated

 until Morvan's death in 1980. Morvan started to design advertising posters in 1949, and soon

 attracted major clients including Perrier, Bally, Gitanes, Esso, Evian, Danone, and Vittel.

He abandoned the Art Deco inspiration and realistic portraiture of his early works in favour of

a more modern approach featuring stylized and funny characters painted in bold primary colors.

In 1961 he was awarded a gold medal at the grand prix de l'affiche Martini for this ad.

Cartouches Rey, 1967

In the same year Morvan created the first in a series of lovely posters 

featuring children for the campaign Jeunesse au plein air.

Morvan was a prolific artist who worked until the end of his life, 

and his poster production totals over 500 pieces, including a series

of lion-themed ads for the Lyon International fair.

In the 1950s he also illustrated a series of children's books by Jean des Vallières.

Take a look at them over at Ribambelles & Ribambins.

Snowy Safari

Emilie Vast, Neige

For all of you readers and creatures who are walking on snow

WInslow Homer, The Fox Hunt, 1893

 Charles Livingston Bull, Old Crow and His Friends, 1918,

thanks to Aqua-Velvet

Grant Wood, February, 1940

Lennart Helje

Emanuel Schongut, 1990

 Józef Wilkon, The Story of the Kind Wolf, 1982, and Marc Simont, The Happy Day, 1949,

 thanks to Curious Pages

Felicitas Kuhn, Christmastime in Pixieland, 1970, thanks to Tania Covo

Aoi Huber Kono, Era inverno

Soviet poster, thanks to bpx

Charles Mikolaycak, Great Wolf and the Good Woodsman, 1967,

thanks to The Art of Children's Picture Books

Sita Jucker

Catherine Hyde, Stag and snow 

Sunday Safari - Taiga

Diana Sudyka, Taiga

Today's post was inspired by the chilly northern winds sweeping through Florence,

and by Werner Herzog's documentary Happy People: A Year in the Taiga, about a group

 of fearless and resourceful people who really know how to survive in the cold.

Just like these wonderful animals...

Feodor Rojankovsky, Panache l'ecureil, 1939, thanks to The Visual Telling of Stories

T. Kapustin, The first sun, 1987, thanks to polny_shkaf's amazing visual library 

Nathalie Lete, Le Jaseur

Kate McLelland, thanks to Kickcan & Conkers 

Mikhail Belomlinsky, Wonders under the feet, 1967, thanks to bookvart

Ene Pikk, Kärp, 1981, thanks to vaula

V. Kanevsky, Winter Poems, 1984, via Hanna Rivka

Nikolai Tyrsa, Snezhnaya kniga, 1926

Gwen Keraval, Le fils qui sauva son père

Georgy Nikolsky, Year in the woods, 1978 and

Nikita Charushin, My first zoology book, 1984, thanks to Book Graphics

Animalsleepstories, The Old Caribou