There's a new exhibit by local artist and author Patrick O'Brien at the central branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Intern Shruti Rastogi has the details:
The Enoch Pratt Free Library's new art exhibit not only features dinosaurs in space, but also shows viewers the process one local artist uses to turns his ideas into illustrations and those illustrations into books.
"Space, Swords and Dinosaurs: The Creation of Art for Children's Books" opened this week in the second floor gallery of the library's Central branch. It displays the models, sketches, mock-ups, and paintings of Baltimore's Patrick O'Brien, a children's book author and maritime painter.
O'Brien is known for such books as The Great Ships, The Mutiny on the Bounty, Captain Raptor and the Moon Police, Captain Raptor and the Space Pirates, Sabertooth, and You Are the First Kid on Mars. He has been illustrating all his adult life.
O'Brien started as a freelance illustrator more than 20 years ago. He decided to write and illustrate his own books when he realized that if he wrote the books himself, he would have control over what he illustrated and would therefore get to "paint and draw what I like." He has 12 books still in print.
Captain Raptor is his favorite character, and the group of third graders from Grace and Saint Peter's School, who were there for the exhibit's first day, seemed to agree, said Ellen Riordan, the coordinator of children's services at the library.
"It was gratifying to see that the kids really got it," O'Brien said. He said he overheard one boy recounting the plot of Captain Raptor and thought the exhibit was well summarized by a little girl who said that the exhibit taught kids how to make a book and that they, too, could make one if they really wanted.
The exhibit will continue until May 29. It features a wall with a collage of some of O'Brien's illustrations designed by Jack Young, a graphic designer for the library. O'Brien will also be a featured speaker at the library's CityLit Festival on April 17 and is displaying some of his maritime art at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis from March 5 to April 30.
2006 photo of Patrick O'Brien by Baltimore Sun photographer Amy Davis