When Susan Miller contacted Gayle Kabaker last year asking to illustrate her 2015 calendar, Gayle quickly realized that this was a great honor. “I sent her many of my favorite illustrations to choose from and we narrowed it down to what became a selection of some of my absolute favorites,” said Kabaker. Gayle was going to add or change the color on a few and add edges on some to make them work for the horizontal format. But Susan was adamant that Gayle never compromise her art with cropping or color changes. What an unusual treat as an illustrator who is used to compromises being part of the terrain! Gayle’s ‘old school’ style, is a mixture of acryla gouache and water-color that she scans and creates collages in Photoshop.
Internationally known author, columnist, TV personality and founder of the website Astrology Zone, Susan Miller, finds Gayle Kabaker an enormously talented fine art painter and illustrator. “I fell in love with her sophisticated portfolio at first glance, and I was not surprised to hear that Gayle had been chosen to do work for The New Yorker magazine.”
Susan continues to say, “My annual calendars, this year called The Year Ahead 2015, are eagerly awaited by style makers in the publishing, advertising and consumer market, so my choice of artist is very important. The artist’s work would be found in literally hundreds of offices in the US and overseas, as we do a thorough press mailing. (My astrological calendar is unusual in that I write advice on the most important days of the year so that it’s easy to see the best days for initiations.)”
“Gayle and I collaborated so well with that the project was a joy from start to finish. I had ideas, and so did Gayle, and my creative director, Jackie Meyer, former Creative Director of Warner Books, loved the flow of the work. It was important to me to link the paintings to the mood of the seasons, and they did, quite beautifully. My 2015 calendars have shipped and are continuing to sell, and the response from readers on social media is highly enthusiastic. This project was a home run from the very beginning!”
Virgo was a painting that Gayle created for a gallery show, which later served as the base painting for her ‘June Brides’ New Yorker cover.
The Scorpio image was considered as a fall fashion New Yorker cover.
Leo was Susan Miller’s first consideration for the cover of the calendar.
Gayle created the Sagittarius art specially for the calendar.
In the end, Susan felt the Libra art was best for the cover. “I am so happy with how this calendar turned out!”, says Kabaker.
Prints are available of all the art – go to gkabaker.com to reach Gayle’s store.
To purchase the calendar go to: https://www.americadirectbook.com/The_Year_Ahead_2015_Calendar
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