Flower Fairies of the Wayside by Cicely Mary Barker (Flower Fairies)

Flower Fairies of the Wayside by Cicely Mary Barker

Each of Barker's four seasonal books features poems and full-color illustrations of at least 19 flowers that bloom during a particular season.

Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies books, published in the first half of this century, are known and loved around the world. They were created by a quiet, unassuming and dedicated artist, who was nevertheless remarkably successful, spending her life illustrating many children's books and selling hundreds of watercolours and pastels. Today, almost thiry years after her death, her work continues to offer delights that have stood the test of time.

She was born in 1895 in Croydon, South London, and spent most of her life there. Because of ill-health she was educated at home and largely taught herself to draw and paint, encouraged by a supportive family and assisted by membership of the Croydon Art Society. She was only sixteen when she had her first work accepted for publication as a set of postcards, and from that time she devoted her career to painting.

It was her Flower Fairies books that brought Cicely Mary Barker her greatest popular acclaim. Like the Pre-Raphaelite painters whom she so much admired, she believed in recreating the beauty of nature in art and in drawing from life. Her plants and flowers were observed with complete botanical accuracy and in the fairies themselves she perfectly captured the unselfconscious grace of young children, whom she used to sketch in her sister's school. Her Flower Fairies watercolours have a unique combination of naturalism and fantasy which no imitators have matched.

There are 8 original Flower Fairies books in this series:

• Flower Fairies of the Spring
• Flower Fairies of the Summer
• Flower Fairies of the Autumn
• Flower Fairies of the Winter
• Flower Fairies of the Trees
• Flower Fairies of the Garden
• Flower Fairies of the Wayside
• A Flower Fairy Alphabet

Book Details:

• Number of Pages: 56
• Book Size: 4-3/8" x 5-3/4"
• Book Type: Hardcover with Dust Jacket
• Recommended Ages: 6 and up
• ISBN 10: 0723248303
• ISBN 13: 9780723248309