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| A book of nonsense |
Natalie Pudalov is a young illustrator who now splits her life between Israel and Germany. Her artistic universe is made up of the main ingredients of childhood: plenty of imagination and a little bit of nonsense...
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| That's what I think, how about you |
I am a children’s book illustrator, born in Russia. When I was a kid, my family immigrated to Israel and now I live and work partly in Israel and partly in Germany. I began to draw at a very early age, and have been drawing ever since – anywhere and everywhere. After finishing high school I was accepted to the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and to the Stuttgart Academy of Art & Design in Germany. I always liked to invent stories or to illustrate stories that I read or listen to. So it was not something that I knowingly decided to do, but rather something that came very natural to me.
What kind of illustrations do you do?
Would you like to share with us a unique experience you had when
illustrating a book?
Actually
I do all kinds of illustrations: for children and adults, books,
covers, postcards, wooden dolls etc. Every
project is a beginning of something new; it is about the discovery of
new things. Since
I use a lot of fantasy, details in my illustrations and some nonsense,
it takes time to invent something interesting, something that adults
or children will stop and think about.
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| White Hydrangea Tea |
Is there a text, a book, a fairy
tale, a song you would like to illustrate but haven't yet?
Actually,
there are lots of stories and tales that I would like to illustrate,
but the thing that I want to do the most now is to focus on
illustrating my own texts. I
have recently written a few texts
and it seems to me that it’s
time to try to illustrate my own stories.
That would be very interesting, in my opinion.
What
materials do you usually use?
That’s
an interesting question, because usually I use everything what I find
suitable for painting, acrylic, pencils, collages, pens, stamps,
ink.
Are you currently working on something?
I
have just finished working on two books: "Turtle, bird and fish" written by I. Chlaki was published this summer in Spanish and Italian. The other one will be published in September, also
in Spain. I’m
currently working on some self-promotional projects and will soon
begin working on my own book.
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| Turtle, bird and a fish |
Is illustration a profession for
you or a hobby? Is it possible to make a living through illustration
in your country?
Illustration
is a profession for me, a full-time job. It takes a lot of time to
work on a project, much more than one thinks. Even before I actually
start drawing, I have to do a lot of thinking and planning –
creative ideas are slow to come by. Yes,
it’s hard to make a living only through illustrations. I believe
it’s the same for all illustrators.
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| Herbal tea |
Which illustrators (classical or
contemporary) have inspired you?
I
have been inspired by many illustrations, most of them come from old
painters such as Bosch, Bruegel, Rembrandt, Modigliani, Netherlands
painters, naive art etc.
Images form imagination. When you paint
do you think that images will come alive in the imagination of
children?
When I create,
I show my inner world, in the hope that
people, especially children, would find it
interesting. I think that most children are very imaginative and very creative. Sometimes
you think that you need to explain things to them, but they can
actually teach you much more, so I try to make
my work interesting for me, first of
all, and then, I hope
that it would be interesting for
them as well.
What in an illustrator's relationship
with childhood? How much do your childhood memories define your work?
I
think childhood always remains
with every person,
especially for those who
create. The
most important thing for the illustrator
is not to
lose interest in the things
around him or her - to always
enjoy the little things in life and to
discover everything all over again, the same way they discovered them
as kids. Of
course, there
are many precious moments that I carry with me from my
own childhood and
now influence the most important aspects of
my work, like the big affection I have to animals and nature.
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| Alice in wonderland |
You have illustrated popular fairy
tales, such as “Alice in wonderland”, “The sleeping beauty”,
“Cinderella”, “Puss in boots”. Is it easy to create a new
concept of a “classical” story through illustration? To imagine,
propose or conceive a different dimension of it?
Actually,
no. I find it very hard to create something new and modern to
classical stories. These are stories I grew up with, and I remember
the images from the old illustrated books and the old animated
cartoons. It’s quite challenging to create something new and fresh
to these stories that is free from the old images I have in my mind.
But I see it as a personal challenge to show your opinion and your
interpretation of a story that you were exposed to as a child; I
think this is part of the magic of being an illustrator. The
only thing I have to do in any story or book that I illustrate is to
be myself and simply try to explain, illustrate and show my point of
view of the story.
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| Raven |
The main characteristic of your
illustrations is their surrealistic atmosphere. Has surrealism
influenced your style? Do you believe that it's easier for a child to
understand a surrealistic picture?
I
don’t think surrealism has influenced my style, and I don’t refer
my illustrations to surrealism, but rather to imaginative or some
kind of nonsense. Perhaps the only influence that I could associate
with surrealism is the possibility to think and analyze the things
that I’ve viewed before as being regular and now they are in the
different context in the picture.
I
can’t honestly talk about what is easy for children, because
children are very different: with some you can discuss philosophy and
with others you need to talk in very simple terms. However, I am sure
that all of them without exception have great imagination, and that
if you develop it from a young age, you will not need to explain to
them anything – they will create their own world from every image
they see. Even if they don’t understand the things as they are,
their imagination will help them create their own interpretation of
the scene, and that is just wonderful, in my opinion.
In your world the boundaries between land and sea are fluid. Strange creatures with pointy noses inhabit both sides. Your paintings give a different, sometimes cruel, but still peaceful, conception of nature. How is that?
That’s
my world, the world of creatures, animals and nature. I know it may
appear sometime to be mysterious, and I find it hard to explain it
myself, but I think it’s just a reflection of how I feel about the
world around me.
