Ann Mari Sjögren (1 January 1918 – 11 July 2010) was a Swedish fantasy artist and illustrator.
Sjögren was raised in Nyhamnsläge, a small Swedish fishing community. The younger of two sisters. Her artistic heritage can be traced to her mother who was very conscious of colours, and her father who, in later years spent his time carving figures in wood. She was educated as a commercial artist at Reklamkonstskolan in Stockholm, and later worked at Kärnan publishers in Helsingborg, at a time when they started to publish children's books. She has been painting fairies for as long as she can remember. Every piece of paper that she found became a little work of art.
Her first book, En dag i Älvriket was published just after World War II in 1945. Three years later it was translated into English as “A Day in Fairy Land”. It was published in ten different languages. It remains a highly collectible antique publication that influenced many post war baby boom children. An editorial from an American paper of that time shows the famous actress and film star Joan Crawford, reading from A Day in Fairy Land for her four adopted children. She went on to teach adults in painting, croquis or batik. Her many books like Lill, foundling of the animals and The Princess and the Pirate Wedding Bells in Fairyland were sold worldwide.
In her 88th year, she enjoyed a comeback as fairy nostalgia swept the world as a new art movement, her work being published with modern fantasy masters Brian Froud in The Art of Faery and Alan Lee in The World of Faery and in 500 Fairy Motifs by Myrea Pettit.
Helen Beatrix Potter was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist; she was best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren was a Swedish writer of fiction and screenplays. She is best known for several children's book series, featuring Pippi Longstocking, Emil of Lönneberga, Karlsson-on-the-Roof, and the Six Bullerby Children, and for the children's fantasy novels Mio, My Son, Ronia the Robber's Daughter, and The Brothers Lionheart. Lindgren worked on the Children's Literature Editorial Board at the Rabén & Sjögren publishing house in Stockholm and wrote more than 30 books for children. In January 2017, she was calculated to be the world's 18th most translated author, and the fourth most translated children's writer after Enid Blyton, Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm. Lindgren has so far sold roughly 165 million books worldwide. In 1994, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "her unique authorship dedicated to the rights of children and respect for their individuality."
Cicely Mary Barker was an English illustrator best known for a series of fantasy illustrations depicting fairies and flowers. Barker's art education began in girlhood with correspondence courses and instruction at the Croydon School of Art. Her earliest professional work included greeting cards and juvenile magazine illustrations, and her first book, Flower Fairies of the Spring, was published in 1923. Similar books were published in the following decades.
Elsa Beskow was a famous Swedish author and illustrator of children's books. Among her better known books are Tale of the Little Little Old Woman and Aunt Green, Aunt Brown and Aunt Lavender.
Jasmine Becket-Griffith is a freelance artist who specializes in fairy, fantasy, and gothic artwork. Her preferred medium is acrylic on canvas or wood and her designs appear on many lines of licensed merchandise, notably through the chain stores Hot Topic and collectibles through the Bradford Group including co-branded Disney projects. She is also a staple at fantasy conventions, namely Dragon*Con, MegaCon (Orlando) and FaerieCon.
Kinuko Yamabe Craft is a Japanese-born American painter, illustrator and fantasy artist.
Meredith Dillman is a fantasy artist and illustrator from Minnesota who specializes in fairies and fairy tale paintings. She has published multiple art books and illustrated the covers and interiors of art books and novels.
Fairy painting is a genre of painting and illustration featuring fairies and fairy tale settings, often with extreme attention to detail. The genre is most closely associated with Victorian painting in Great Britain, but has experienced a contemporary revival. Moreover, fairy painting was also seen as escapism for Victorians.
Maria Gripe, born Maja Stina Walter, was a Swedish author of books for children and young adults, which were often written in magical and mystical tone. She has written almost forty books, with many of her characters presented in short series of three or four books. For her lasting contribution to children's literature, she received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Writing in 1974.
John Albert Bauer was a Swedish painter and illustrator. His work is concerned with landscape and mythology, but he also composed portraits. He is best known for his illustrations of early editions of Bland tomtar och troll, an anthology of Swedish folklore and fairy tales.
Jennifer Carolyn Robin McKinley is an American author of fantasy and children's books. Her 1984 novel The Hero and the Crown won the Newbery Medal as the year's best new American children's book.
Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. She has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.
Helena Nyblom was a Danish-Swedish children's story author. She is perhaps most remembered for The Swan Suit. She died in Stockholm.
Stephanie Pui-Mun Law is an American painter and illustrator who works predominantly in watercolor and whose art is inspired by, and depicts scenes of fantasy, the Other World, and the surreal. She has also been influenced by the art of the Impressionists, Pre-Raphaelites, and Surrealists, as well as other contemporary popular fantasy artists.
Siv Cedering was a Swedish-American poet, writer, and artist. She occasionally published as Siv Cedering Fox.
Ann Oenone Grocott is an Australian writer and painter, whose two children's books have been translated into Swedish and Danish. In addition to figurative, portraiture and landscape painting, her artworks include: assemblages in fabric, cement, wood, found objects etc.; oils on canvas, paper and plaster; watercolours and small sculptures. In 1999, Grocott was one of five artists chosen to represent Australia in "Our World in the Year 2000", the Winsor and Newton Worldwide Millennium Exhibition, as a result of which her work appeared in London, Stockholm, Brussels and New York.
Linda Ravenscroft is a self-taught artist and author best known for her paintings and drawings of fantasy subjects. Her work is influenced by William Morris and his contemporaries, as well by more modern illustrators such as Brian Froud. Ravenscroft became a professional artist in 1994 after the birth of her son, Dorian. Her first prints were published in 1998; since then, she has been featured in many Fantasy/Fairy Art books and illustrated and written several tutorial Faerie Art books, such as How to Draw and Paint Fairies (2005). Ravenscroft's work has been widely featured on cards and calendars. In 2013, Linda opened up a gallery, named "The Mystic Garden" after one of her early works, in Glastonbury, Somerset, which she runs with her husband, John.
Anthony Rubens Montalba was a Swedish-born, naturalised British painter and the head of a family of renowned artists that based itself in Venice in the later part of the nineteenth-century. He may be known best as the editor of an 1849 story collection illustrated by Richard Doyle, Fairy Tales from All Nations.
Faery Rebels, also known as No Ordinary Fairy Tale, is a three-book fantasy series by Canadian author R. J. Anderson. Each book of the series centers around a faery who must venture out of their island to save the faery race.
Julie Baroh is an American fantasy artist.