EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 29 © 2019 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

32 of Pinhorn Wood, and his grandfather, Lewis John Wood, was an architec- tural artist and lithographer. Young Lawson Wood (wisely, he soon dropped the ‘Clarence’) found himself studying at a number of art schools: the Slade School of Fine Art, Heatherley’s School of Fine Art and latterly — and most interestingly — Frank Calderon’s School of Animal Painting. It seems obvi- ous that by this time Wood was fascinated by animals and must have been relishing the prospect of learning how to draw them. Frank Calderon, a noted animal artist, had established his school of animal painting in 1894, located at 54 Baker Street in central London where it remained until 1911 when it moved to his own private house and studio in Kensington. Calderon maintained a resident menagerie of animals at the school, a mind-blowing achievement! The school also had a large number of casts of animals, ranging from horses, dogs, snakes, armadillos, sheep — and monkeys. The school was, in fact, highly influential and many of the great 20th century horse and animal painters, such as Cecil Aldin, Lionel Edwards, Alfred Munnings and George Studdy, studied there. Lawson Wood was in good company. By 1896, at the age of 18, Wood became employed by the periodical pub- lisher, C. Arthur Pearson, becoming chief staff artist and a prolific illustrator for their publications, Short Stories and Pearson’s Magazine , as well as for a number of their books. Many of the latter certainly didn’t require the keen Text continued from page 28 ABOVE LEFT AND RIGHT: By the late 1920s, Wood was asked to provide covers for the American weekly magazine Collier’s , his speciality being paintings with animals (at the beginning fowls and parrots) before he achieved fame with his monkey series. Some of the best and most notorious illustrators had also done covers for this magazine. FACING PAGE: Percy Lends Gran’pop his Yo-Yo , pencil, ink and watercolour on board.