I Iove a nonfiction biography about an artist that makes me sit up and examine it much more closely. That is certainly the case for today’s picture book!

Lauren Stringer has illustrated many celebrated picture books, including Deer Dancer by Mary Lyn Ray; The Princess and Her Panther by Wendy Orr; Scarecrow and Snow, both written by Cynthia Rylant; as well as her own Winter Is the Warmest Season, When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky, The Dark Was Done, and An Abundance of Light. She lives with her family in Minneapolis, Minnesota. You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Instagram or Facebook.

AN ABUNDANCE OF LIGHT is a nonfiction biography about Henri Matisse and his time spent in Morocco. It focuses on one tiny part of his life where he was struggling with depression and a cold, rainy winter that made all of Paris seem grey, dull and lifeless. A friend recommended he go to Morocco to paint in the glorious amounts of light to be found there. However, Morocco was also struggling with rainy weather. When the rain finally lifted, Henri did find an abundance of light, BUT the story doesn’t end there. He goes on to make other artistic discoveries. Lauren both wrote and illustrated this book and I fell madly in love with it. There are repeated refrains, artistic lessons I was experiencing myself, and amazing choices with color and composition that just blew my mind. This book gave me shivers and frankly, I think it must be on the bookshelf of every fan of Matisse, as well as art lover. It’s that incredible!

Please note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher to review, but the opinions, as always, are my own.

Welcome Lauren!

Me: You are an incredibly prolific writer and illustrator of picture books. Can you tell us a little bit about your creative journey? When did you start creating art and/or writing them? How did that lead to where you are now as the author-illustrator of this book?

Lauren: I have loved drawing since my fingers were big enough to wrap around a crayon. My first introduction to art was looking at picture books while listening to the words read aloud. I studied art and art history in university and worked as an art handler in museums in Washington DC, Boston and NY, while painting my own paintings, building sculptures, designing and painting theater sets for dance and performance art. It was an unexpected surprise that I began to illustrate picture books. I had moved to Minneapolis, MN where I began making painted sculptures with doors that opened and closed and a dear friend who saw a show of my work said it reminded her of turning pages in a picture book. She introduced me to her editor, who for some wild and wonderful reason, decided to take a chance on having me illustrate a story, Mud, written by Mary Lyn Ray, and published by Harcourt Brace in 1996. It was a Publisher’s Weekly Flying Starts, and won many other awards, and happily this editor, Allyn Johnston, loved working with me and visa versa, and offered me gorgeous manuscripts to illustrate.

When you are lucky enough to be paired up with authors like Mary Lyn Ray, Cynthia Rylant, and Mem Fox, and you get to live with their words day in and day out for nearly a year, it is like being an apprentice to the great artists. I learned the rhythms, cadences, and page turns of their stories while creating the illustrations, and internalized them to such a degree that I felt ready to try my own stories. And my stories have been inspired by listening to my own children as they grew up, watching the natural world change and grow around me, visiting museums and galleries as often as possible, and in this case, the story for An Abundance of Light, a Story of Matisse in Morocco, found its seed of inspiration when I traveled to meet my daughter’s fiancé in Tangier, Morocco in 2015.

Me: I love the illustrations you did for this book, from the full spreads to those gorgeous end papers. Can you talk about that process a little bit? Are you mainly a traditional artist? Or do you also utilize digital tools? What media did you use to create the illustrations in this book?

Lauren: The book begins in the dark studio of Henri Matisse on a dark and rainy day outside of Paris. My original idea was blues and grays, but after painting dozens of sketches, I took an online drawing class using charcoal, which was a medium I had not used since college drawing classes. I loved the smudging, erasing, and grainy textures, so charcoal, along with watercolor, starts and ends the illustrations in the book. When the light of Tangier finally takes over, I wanted to continue with the texture of charcoal, but did not want grays and blacks, so I pulled out my old pastels which I had not used in forever and pastel, along with watercolor and gouache are the mediums used for the Morocco spreads. Knowing that I wanted to capture the details of Islamic textiles, pottery, and architecture, I scanned the originals and added details in Procreate on my iPad. I had never used any digital mediums before, so it was quite scary for me, but I am so happy with the results!

Me: It turned out so gorgeously! Well worth it! I understand the manuscript for this book received a McKnight Artist Fellowship for Writers in 2020. It’s incredible that there’s such an award for children’s literature like this out there! Did it help with travel costs or research? Can you talk about how that helped you with this book?

Lauren: The McKnight Artist Fellowship for Writers was an incredible gift. I received the news in April 2020, one month into the pandemic, in the midst of a worldwide lockdown! Unable to travel or even go to the library for research, the initial gift of the Fellowship gave me confidence in my manuscript. I finally shared it with my agent and editor and it was bought by Beach Lane Books, imprint of Simon & Schuster. I did not start on illustrations right away, because I was in the midst of illustrating my picture book, The Dark Was Done, which seemed like the best title to precede An Abundance of Light! The money from the Fellowship did allow me to travel to Tangier, via Paris in 2023. By that time, my research had readied me to visit all of the places Henri Matisse had visited with my sketchbook and imagine his journey in the Mediterranean light.

Me: You have written and illustrated many picture books about creative individuals. What was it about Matisse specifically in Morocco that drew you to the story? What gave you the idea?

Lauren: I love looking at art. I love artists and reading about their lives. I am not so much interested in biographies, but in those moments of profound epiphanies and creative outbursts that change the course of an artist’s life. When I wrote and illustrated When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky, Two Artists, Their Ballet, and One Extraordinary Riot, I wanted to tell the story of creating “The Rite of Spring,” which was a ballet so bold and so new that it caused a riot in the theater in 1913 and changed the course of modern music and dance in the 20th Century. While preparing to travel to Morocco for the first time in 2015, I read the only book on Morocco that we had on our bookshelves, Matisse in Morocco, the catalogue for an exhibit of Matisse’s paintings from Tangier, painted in 1912-1913. I learned that those two years were pivotal years in Matisse’s life as a painter.

I learned that before going to Morocco, Henri was in crisis as an artist, unable to support his family through sales of his art after it fell out of fashion with the rise of Cubism, and Paris was having one of the coldest, rainiest winters on record. Depressed and unable to paint without light, Henri did not give up. Using the money from a commission, he traveled to Tangier on the advice of a friend, and even when it was the rainiest, coldest winter in Morocco, Henri did not let his despair get the better of him. I found his determination and courage to step into the unknown, even when his world was falling apart, incredibly inspiring. The works he painted in Morocco were unlike his earlier work— thin layers of paint, allowing the light of the white canvas to show through and a new kind of abstraction inspired by the shadows and light of the city. The work that followed his years in Tangier was among his most radical, using “black as a color of light” and bold abstraction of pure color. Tangier was a pivotal moment in Matisse’s life and the story excited me so much I had to share!

Me: And that excitement definitely comes through in the book! I feel like Matisse is an evergreen topic (or any prominent artist like him really), and there are some profoundly notable picture books out there already about Matisse. I’m NOT complaining as I love his work! Yet it can feel like everything has already been written on a topic like this. But you found beautiful new material for this particular story to focus on. Why was it important to you to tell this story about Matisse and light (and darkness)? Why did you want to share it with young readers?

Lauren: You are right, there are so many brilliant books on Matisse out there and even I wondered if the world needed another one, but as I read about his despair and difficulties and how he found his way to light and a deeper sense of who he was as an artist, I felt it was a story everyone, including young readers, could glean inspiration from. Matisse traveled to a country he had never visited and a culture very unlike the one he had known in France. It takes courage to go forward when the world seems dark. All too often we see famous artists as successful throughout their careers, especially Matisse, whose colors and shapes radiate joy, but to learn the back story of hopelessness and desperation that he went through to offer the beauty in his art can give everyone a deeper understanding of the artistic process, especially young readers.

Me: I love that! It’s so important to see the struggles, as well as the successes. What is one thing that surprised you in writing and/or illustrating this story?

Lauren: Most of the photos of Henri Matisse are in black and white, so I was surprised with delight to learn through my research that his hair and beard were red! It made it all the more enjoyable to paint Henri over and over on every spread.

Me: Oh! What a delightful discovery! Any advice for other aspiring picture book writers and/or illustrators?

Lauren: I offer the overused but very wise phrase: Follow your heart. I have always found it to be true and in the case of Henri Matisse, I think this story is also the story of following your heart no matter how difficult life can become. I have found it leads to unexpected surprises, like becoming a children’s book illustrator and author when your career is going in another direction. Also, if you have an idea for a story, no matter how outlandish it seems, if it sticks with you, follow through with it. It took me ten years to make this book; at least sixty manuscript revisions and two full years to paint the illustrations, so be patient and enjoy the process!

That is such great advice. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today Lauren.

Dear readers, this book publishes TODAY. Yay! Happy book birthday Lauren! If you are struggling creatively, this book is an inspiring look at a famous artist and the choices he made to get himself out of a deep rut mentally and artistically. It is told with grace and talent that is profoundly touching and will galvanize everyone who reads it to not only observe the world around them, but to create. What greater tribute is there? Trust me when I say, you won’t want to miss it!