Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Dinotopia Originals to be in Tajan Auction

Some of you have asked if original art from the Dinotopia books will ever be made available to collectors. For many years I’ve kept them off the market so that I can make them available for museum exhibitions.

Until now, no paintings from Dinotopia: The World Beneath, First Flight, or Journey to Chandara have ever been sold.

On October 16, the Tajan auction house in Paris will conduct their first-ever sale of bande dessinée, which includes comics and fantasy art. They have invited me to participate.

The auction will include three original oil paintings from Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara, (published as Dinotopia: Un Voyage À Chandara in French).

The first painting, from page 151, is called “The Emperor’s Offer.” It shows the main characters, Arthur and Bix, with the officials of Chandara. The image is 17.5 x 29.5 cm on a 25.5 x 38 cm acid-free board, and is signed lower right.

This painting is very special to me and I worked hard to capture that other-worldly light and mood.

I posed a variety of models, including myself and my wife, and used a maquette to work out the pale, glowing silhouette of Chandara in the distance.

I’ll show the other two paintings in later posts.
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Galerie Daniel Maghen is the expert adviser in the sale, which will also include Moebius, Bilal, Pratt, and Franquin.
Tajan’s October bande dessinée auction (the final online catalog is still in preparation).
James Gurney Original Art blog
Dinotopia website
For more information, please email Olivier Souille at "info@danielmaghen.com"

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Rad post! I love seeing the process and its all just sooo cool!!!

Mary Bullock said...

Aren't you cute dressed like that!

Nate Peyton said...

If I give you a massive *high five* can I get one for free? I'm friends with Matt Roberts if that makes it even better! (awesome maquette by the way)

Will Kelly said...

If I had a million bucks (is that a fair appraisal?), I would buy this right now and it would hang in my studio - no - living room for all time. But alas, I have not a million bucks. But I do have Journey to Chandara, so I can be happy anyway.

My Pen Name said...

Congrats but its also saying good bye to an old friend?

I once asked one of my teachers - a very very well known painter (now in his senior years) - whether it was hard to part with paintings - he said there were some paintings that he kept but mostly, when he lost one he really liked it created the motivation to do something better.
I think there's something in that.

Unlike writers or filmmakers its the original that counts... and its always hard to part with!

cobaka said...

the hat you're wearing in the reference photo looks kinda like a traditional kyrgyz kalpak. i've never seen one with zebra stripes, though. where did you get it?

Teuvo Vehkalahti said...

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Living Rope said...

Olivier from the galerie showed me the 3 pieces when I came give mine for the auction. I don't have words to say how I love those, James ! Each time I see your art for real I learn something new that I will be able to use in my own craft.

This painting is one of the stellar pieces of the auction.

take care :)

Vicki said...

There is something quite Maxfield Parrish-ish about that painting.
Look at this: http://www.artpassions.net/cgi-bin/parrish_image.pl?../galleries/parrish/fairy_tales/enchanted_prince.jpg
and this:
http://www.artpassions.net/cgi-bin/parrish_image.pl?../galleries/parrish/poems_of_childhood/little_peach.jpg
(Sorry those links are so long)
Very lovely.

Anonymous said...

Gosh, this is a beautiful painting!