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I brought Thomas Locker's HOME: A Journey Through America (c. 1998) home from the library, laid it out on the coffee table, and waited.  My youngest picked it up, poured over it, and came running to me: "Mommy, this pictures look beautifully!"

That afternoon the eldest came home from school, poured over the new-found book, and said, "Momma, you have got to look at these pictures!  These are my favorites."

I think old and young alike are amazed that Thomas Locker shares his magnificent oil on canvas landscape paintings not only in art galleries or museums but in childrens' books for all to enjoy.  Seriously, introduce your child to the fine art of Thomas Locker.  You may be astonished at the art appreciation that issues out of his/her mouth.

Sky Tree

The reason you should purchase or check out Sky Tree: Seeing Science Through Art by Thomas Locker with Candace Christiansen (c. 1995) isn't because it tells such a wonderful story.  There's no reason to turn cartwheels over this text.  The real showstoppers are Locker's illustrations.  I can't think of a better way to tour the season.  And rather than writing about and describing them, I'm going to show you some selections:

Wind Has Shaken Autumn Down

Wind has shaken autumn down

left it sprawling on the ground,

shawling all in gold below,

waiting for the hush of snow.

~  Tony Johnston

from Snow Toward Evening: A Year in a River Valley / Nature Poems Selected by Josette Frank with Paintings by Thomas Locker.

Mountain Brook

"Mountain Brook"
by Elizabeth Coatsworth

Because of the steepness,
the streamlet runs white,
narrow and broken
as lightning by night.

Because of the rocks,
it leaps this way and that,
fresh as a flower,
quick as a cat.





from Snow Toward Evening: A Year in a River Valley / Nature Poems Selected by Josette Frank with Paintings by Thomas Locker.

The First Thanksgiving

I've introduced the magnificent paintings of Thomas Locker to you.  Here's his take on The First Thanksgiving written by Jean Craighead George (c. 1993).