EVA ELAND

English will be spoken during this evening:

Join us for an evening with illustrator, author and artist Eva Eland as she talks with us about her love for traditional materials and printmaking and how this influences her handwriting, but also about how she deals with incorporating ‘difficult subjects’ in making work for children.

Eva Eland is a picture book maker from Amsterdam. She is best known for her picture books about emotions, When Sadness Comes to Call and Where Happiness Begins, which have been translated into more than 20 languages and have been nominated, shortlisted and won several awards, including the Klaus Flugge Prize and the V&A Award. Eva’s third picture book with Andersen Press – Where is the Cat? – will be released in april 2024, right before our talk. She is currently working on a fourth.

Eva graduated in 2008 at the Audiovisual Design department of the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Writing and drawing were a continuous thread in her creative work and made her enroll on the MA Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art in 2015. Here, Eva says, she felt she finally found her tribe. She loved being a student again, this time with a greater appreciation for the time she had to dedicate herself to exploring ideas and learning all there was to learn about storytelling and drawing. She graduated cum laude in 2018.

Eva enjoys watching people and drawing from observation. She is fascinated by human behaviour and psychology and does not shy away from difficult topics such as grief, loneliness and the creative process. In her work, she likes to address these, but often in an encouraging or humorous way. The subjects she is attracted to are often those she has struggled with herself or that are still a mystery to her. She pours big themes into small stories that say it all and make you sigh for a moment when you close the book. We want to know all about Eva’s skill in capturing the essence in these themes she tackles.

As usual, there will be plenty of time for Q&A after the talk. We would love to hear from you!

/// Please note: All ticket buyers will be sent access to a full recording of the talk and Q&A, which will be available for four days after the event. You will receive an email with a link for this a day later. Send us an email especially if you have not received it after 24 hours – please do so after you have checked your spam folder. Tickets are non-refundable.

Venster Academy‘s Visual Storytelling Sessions welcome illustrators at all stages of development – from those just starting out, early in their career, more established illustrators and authors or anyone with a passion for books with pictures!

Follow us here on eventbrite or check meet-up hosts Rachel, Emily and Venster on Instagram for updates about future events: @rachelstubbs_, @emilyhaworthbooth, @vensteracademy

Images © Eva Eland