Leah Palmer Preiss (update)

Since I last wrote about the wonderfully eccentric illustrations of Leah Palmer Preiss back in 2007, there haven’t been many additions to her web site (which seems to be in a kind of “under construction” twilight zone), but she has been putting her attention into a blog that she started shortly after my article appeared.

In the blog, Curious Art, Preiss has been posting mostly personal work, and occasionally commissioned pieces. These include images in which she works in acrylic over top of old sheets of text from various sources, like 19th century encyclopedias and old dictionaries, a “canvas” that fits in with her role as a calligrapher and her fondness for collage.

There are also a number of recent illustrations for the upcoming book The Old Man and the Cat by Anthony Holcroft (image above, top).

One of the best things about her blog is that many of the images are linked to larger versions that let you see the fascinating details of her approach better than in the images on her site. You can also see many of them even larger in her Flickr sets.

In addition, Preiss now has a portfolio on Altpick.com.