Oliver Jeffers Working Mind Drawing Hand: The Working Mind and Drawing Hand

Such a generous insight into this talented Artists ideas, inspirations and wonderful artwork.

On time Christmas present she loved it

Love it love it!

Oliver Jeffers is known for his charmingly illustrated children’s books, with a sense of play and wonder. He is less known for his fine art work, which is arguably underappreciated.This included me, and as Jeffers himself remarks in The Working Mind, this lifting of a veil of ignorance has empowered me to look at the world anew.This is due to Jeffers’s application of visual literacy — “the developed ability to understand pictures and communicate through them”, as Sharon Matt Atkins describes in one of a selection of guest contributors. She continues by explaining that Jeffers’s career in making books was serendipitous, in that he realised a book was a better format for a particular story that he wanted to tell.Jeffers is a storyteller: “We are no more than the stories we tell, we are told, and are told about us.” Jeffers tells stories in manners he sees fit, whether through illustrated books, dipped paintings, murals, or mixed media (such as in his Jesus and Hidden Variables series or the painted globes of Map Works/Where We Are In The World).For me, the essence of Jeffers’s genius is revealed in the surrealist images in the Hammer Paintings, diptychs of a hammer and nail first lying on the floor then with the hammer fixed to the wall by the nail: “We see the before, and we see the after, but that impossible step in between the two eludes us.”This beautifully authored book is a masterpiece of visual communication — carefully considered images and text truly present the working mind and drawing hand of a remarkable artist. It provides a sincere insight into Jeffers’s thought process as well as challenging us to engage with our own imaginations and creativity.

I loved every page of this book. Well worth the money. My kids love his picture books and so do I, but his vast and varied artwork is amazing. It's the kind of book you find yourself picking up over and over again.

This is a fascinating book, with lots of illustrations of Oliver Jeffers work with side pieces written by other artists as well as introductions and reflections from Oliver Jeffers himself. I love that the author/artist works across age ranges and mediums to explore his own thinking and most importantly to stimulate the thinking of others.So much of Oliver Jeffers work explores what it is to be human - the dipped paintings exploring the nature of memory, and my favourite work which draws connections with the stars and how we perceive them, and the maps with countries labelled doesn't matter, doesn't matter.The purpose of art should be to make the viewer think - this book certainly does that, and I love that the author is becoming increasingly focused on environmental issues as shown in his latest book, the Fate of Fausto, which works so well on so many levels.If you enjoy art, and in particular if you or your children enjoy Oliver Jeffers' books there will a lot for you to enjoy in this big, big-hearted, book