fbpx
BooksFantasyIllustration

Women Of Wonder edited by Cathy Fenner (book review).

The sub-title the Cathy Fenner edited book ‘Women Of Wonder’ is ‘Celebrating Women Creators Of Fantastic Art’ should explain the nature of this book. To me, it is a taster sample book of 57 lady artists. That’s quite a number, especially as so many of them are still active in the field and some were mentioned but not included. Each gets two pages, a full painting, a picture of each and something about them or a brief conversation, including their websites and even books for some if you want see what else they do.

WomenOfWonder

There is quite a spread in styles so everyone should be happy. I did think that everyone was going to be current but discovering that there was quite a spread including the likes of Margaret Brunedage (1900-1976), Rose O’Neill (1874-1944) and a couple other artists who are no longer with us, like Ilene Meyer (1939-2009), showing that a history of lady artists in our genre is long over-due as well.

As with common with the Fenners’ annual ‘Spectrum: The Best In Contemporary Art’, sculpture or 3D art isn’t neglected with a couple beautiful pieces from Forest Rogers and Virginie Ropairs.

If you weren’t familiar with many of these lady artists before, I suspect you will be afterwards. Certainly publishers’ art directors should have this book on their shelves to reference for artists that they haven’t used before and I hope to see more of them turn up painting book covers.

Although talent generally tends to win through, there is so much emphasis on the male of the species in our genre, that the ladies do get missed. This book should at least partially re-address that issue and this book should be a guide to helping you seek out their work.

GF Willmetts

October 2015

(pub: Underwood Books. 128 page large softcover. Price: £10.29 (UK) if you know where to look. ISBN: 978-1-59929-072-0)

check out websites: www.underwoodbooks.com, www.spectrumfantasticart.com and https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Women+Of+Wonder+edited+by+Cathy+Fenner&safe=off&rlz=1T4GGHP_enGB647GB648&biw=1244&bih=706&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAmoVChMIzq-z3_HqyAIVxFYUCh0geApj#safe=off&tbm=isch&q=%22Women+Of+Wonder%22%22Cathy+Fenner%22 (well, at least the first couple rows)

UncleGeoff

Geoff Willmetts has been editor at SFCrowsnest for some 21 plus years now, showing a versatility and knowledge in not only Science Fiction, but also the sciences and arts, all of which has been displayed here through editorials, reviews, articles and stories. With the latter, he has been running a short story series under the title of ‘Psi-Kicks’ If you want to contribute to SFCrowsnest, read the guidelines and show him what you can do. If it isn’t usable, he spends as much time telling you what the problems is as he would with material he accepts. This is largely how he got called an Uncle, as in Dutch Uncle. He’s not actually Dutch but hails from the west country in the UK.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.