Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

Ida Rentoul Outhwaite

I've noticed a few searches recently on my blog stats for the Australian illustrator Ida Rentoul Outhwaite (1888 - 1960).  In a previous post I included two of her illustrations (I've repeated them again here) and as her work is so beautiful I decided to devote today's entry entirely to her.

Ida's Irish born father was a Presbyterian minister and academic.  By the time Ida was born (she was the youngest of four children) he was a professor at Ormond College (University of Melbourne). Ida was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies College in Melbourne. Her maiden name was Rentoul but when she married Arthur Outhwaite in 1909 she became known as Ida Renoul Outhwaite and began signing her work as such.

Ida's first illustration (accompanying a story written by her sister Anne) was published when she was just 15 years old.  Her children (Robert, Anne, Wendy and William) were the models for many of her illustrations which mostly depict fairies.      

The Autumn fairy turns the leaves to gold and scatters them around . . . .

My garden in its Autumn Glory

I've often thought that these fairies would make lovely paper dolls.  I'm sure it will just be a matter of time before I can resist the temptation no longer and make a doll based on her painings.  

The illustrations included in this post come from five different books illustrated by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite:

Elves and Fairies

Fairyland

The Enchanted Forest

Lady of the Blue Beards

The Other Side of Nowhere

 

I have held back three illustrations that I thought would be perfect for Halloween.  I thought I only had one witchy picture - but it turns out I have two and one with a fairy riding on a bat that I think is wonderful (and delightfully unusual).  If you come back and visit me at Halloween I'll be including them then.    

As a child I always thought of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite as being an English artist.  When I looked at these illustrations now I realised that many of them feature koala bears.  That should have given me a clue as to where she really came from!

Some of her black and while illustrations are just as beautiful as those in colour and in my opinion can often be more striking.  The one below is my favourite.

The miniature Japanese Maple on our patio has turned the most gorgeous shade of cerise.  It won't last long and soon the leaves will fall but I'm going to make the most of enjoying it while it looks so glorious.

The swan family in St Stephen's Green I featured a couple of weeks ago (Swans in the Green) are still together and just as devoted and close-knit as before.  The mornings are becoming so dark now I doubt whether I'll be able to walk through the park on my way to work for much longer (I think the gates are opened later in winter).  I don't remember the swans remaining as a family unit for such a long time in past years and have really enjoyed my visits to their lovely world each working day.

I added the Tinkerbell effect to my Blog after seeing it on Diane's at Crave Cute.  She told me how to do it after I left a comment on this post.   I had so much fun playing with the fairy dust that I decided to do something with the cursor as well.  I found a very easy site to work with is Cursors 4U.  I stayed away from the animated sets because they apparently only work on Explorer and I use Google Chrome.  What I really wanted was a proper fairy wand with a star on the end - I must say I was quite surprised not to find one!  So in the end I chose a butterfly, rose and Harry Potter wand and I'm alternating between those three!