50 Pages – The Picture Book Art of Nick Bland

“I have been making picture books now for about 42 years. In 2005, someone was kind enough to publish one. That ‘someone’ was Scholastic Australia who then saw fit to allow me to write and illustrate 25 more over the next 12 years. Along the way, through no fault of my own, some of them even became popular. Each one of those 26 books has 15-40 individual illustrations. While those pictures are all on display in their own books, they have never been displayed outside of them. So I have decided to set them free and frame them for your viewing pleasure, lest they fall victim to ginger ants or mould at my place.” – Nick Bland

Nick Bland and his partner moved to Darwin in 2004. His first book was published in 2005 and he has currently written and illustrated 26 books for children, all with Scholastic Australia. His books have sold more than 3 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 15 languages. He has won the Children’s Book Council of Australia book of the year for early childhood and been shortlisted on 3 occasions. He has won the Australian Book Industry book of the year for children and numerous children’s choice awards in every state and territory. His book The Wrong Book was the most borrowed Australian picture book in libraries in 2014/15. Now Nick has decided to sell some of the original artwork from his past ten years of publishing. None of the works up for sale have ever been sold as prints or in any other form apart from inside the books for which they were produced. The artist’s proceeds will be donated to DASSAN (Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network).