Joan Rankin |
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Joan Mary Hanbury Rankin, née Trehair, was born and
raised in Johannesburg and except for short sojourns in Cape Town and the UK, has been
living in the city all her life. She attended Roedean Private School in Johannesburg and
studied graphic art at the Michaelis Art School in Cape Town under Katrine Harries. She
also attended courses in weaving, pottery and fine arts at the Johannesburg Technical
College and studied oil painting and acrylics with Sidney Goldblatt. Joan has always been interested in illustrating for her family and friends, but mostly for adults. She made and sold her own books and calendars. |
Then, after working in puppetry for about two years, she decided that books would be a medium over which she could have more control and she started to illustrate books.
In 1986, the first children's book she illustrated was published. In the same year she won the HAUM-Daan Retief competition for children's book illustrations for The Far-away Valley. Since then she has illustrated forty children's books and in the last few years has also authored some of them. In 1991 she won South Africa's most prestigious award for children's book illustrations, the Katrine Harries Award, for her illustrations in The Dancing Elephant; Ask for Patricia and The Twelve Days of Christmas.
She considers some her recent books, The Little Cat and the Greedy Old Woman and Scaredy Cat her most successful because they were also published in other countries and received good reviews. Catch Me a River by Diane Pitcher is one of her all time favourites because the beautiful inspiring writing helped her to do some of her best work. Other favourites are Ask for Patricia, by Renee Deetlefs (she likes the direct, amusing story and the way she was able to link her illustrations to the text); The Green Umbrella by Judith Garratt, because it is a very imaginative story with an unusual angle and The Twelve Days of Christmas because of the humour and her liking for cats!
| Rankin works in water colour, ink, crayons, pencil
crayon, and with airbrush, scraperboard, collage and stamps. Her favourite technique is
black and white scraperboard. Watercolour is her base medium although she likes to vary
her technique. She describes her characteristic style as organic, naïve and
humerous. She says that she prefers psychologically
based stories because they have more depth. She also prefers to work with animal
characters because "humans have so many political agendas". She bases her ideas
on real life problems, particularly those small children encounter. |
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Katrine Harries, doyenne of South African children's book illustrations, greatly encouraged her as did Eleanor Esmond White. Later in her life she met Judith Garrett, who was a professor in English at London University and an author of children's books, and who was the person who actually got her launched on her career. Fellow South African illustrator, Niki Daly, broadened her outlook and raised the standard of her work.
Joan visited the UK for six weeks in 1968 and in 1992 she attended the Bologna Book Fair. This visit and in particular her contact with Stephan Zavrel of Bohem Books improved her insight into children's books and helped her to simplify her work. In 1995 and 1997 she attended a Shadow Puppet Festival in Germany and afterwards visited the USA. She is presently very involved in shadow puppeteering. She enjoys working with shadow puppets because this gives her more feeling for theatrical drama.
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Another interest of hers, the study of astrology has
given her greater insight into herself and her motivations as well as a better
understanding of other people, of mythology and fairy tales. Other hobbies and interests
include pets, psychology, calligraphy, making of miniature houses and music. Joan is staunch believer in the value of reading and picture books as this allows the imagination of a child to live and grow and is essential for the healthy development of a child. She is therefore particularly concerned that the South African media give so little coverage to children's literature and that the marketing of children's book is so poor. Even when a book wins one of the major awards it seldom happens that such a book receives attention in the media or is otherwise promoted. Other problems that are facing writers and illustrators of children's books in South Africa are, according to her, the very high cost of children's books; competition from TV which is very accessible compared to reading which requires more effort; parents' and teachers' lack of appreciation for the |
tremendous value of children's books. Compared to literature for adults, children's books are perceived to be inferior in the minds of the general public and of very little consequence. As far as her artistic work is concerned, a problem she experiences is the isolation in which illustrators works, and the fact that there is often a lack of art directing.
She is a member of UNIMA, an international puppet society; the Astrological Society of South Africa; Johannesburg Spinners and Weavers Guild and the Society for Woman Writers and Journalists, London.
Her other aesthetic work includes shadow puppeteering, pottery and weaving and, if time permits, calligraphy and appliqué.
Some exhibitions in which Joan Rankin has participated:
International Exhibition of Children's Book Illustrations,
Sarmede 1987 - 1996 , except 1994
23rd Exibition of International Children's Books, Japan, 1988 International Exhibition of
Children's Book Illustrations, Catalonia, 1990 and 1992
Biennale of Illustrations Bratislava, 1993, 1995
Exhibition of South African
Children's Book Illustrations, Flemish Book Fair, Antwerp, 1997
In South Africa her illustrations has been exhibited at the Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg; Grass Roots Exhibition in Durban; Yellow Door Exhibition in Cape Town; Potchefstroom; University of South Africa in Pretoria and Bloemfontein.
Children's books illustrated by Joan Rankin (authors in brackets, when no author is mentioned, Rankin also wrote the text)
| 1986: Tselane (Moira Thatcher). Tafelberg
Publishers 1987: The Far-away Valley (Jenny Seed). Daan Retief Publishers 1987: Mandu and the Forest Guardian (Mitzi Margolis). Tafelberg Publishers 1988: The House With the Seven Doors (Pieter W Grobbelaar). Daan Retief Publishers 1988: The Samurai Without a Sword (Teddy Knoetze). Daan Retief Publishers 1989: The Twelve Days of Christmas. Daan Retief Publishers 1989: Ask for Patricia (Renee Deetlefs). Human & Rousseau 1990: Catch me a River (Diane Pitcher). Tafelberg Publishers 1990: The Dancing Elephant (Ian Macdonald). Human & Rousseau 1990: Ten are too Many (Mitzi Margoles). Human & Rousseau 1990: The Little Wise One (Phyllis Savory). Tafelberg Publishers |
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1991: The Wind's Song (Jenny Seed). Daan Retief
Publishers 1991: The Magical Mulberry Blanket (Dianne Hofmeyr). Tafelberg Publishers 1991: Storyland (Jay Heale). Tafelberg Publishers 1992: Peter and Dulcie Duck. Anansi Publishers 1992: Five Zulu Tales (Kathleen Arnott). Anansi Publishers 1992: Grandfather Mantis (Jenny Seed). Tafelberg Publishers 1993: Hic Hic Hiccups (Dianne Hofmeyr). Little Library 1993: Scarey Footsteps (Lindi Mahlangu & Lungi Maseka). Little Library 1993: The Green Umbrella (Judith Garratt). Daan Retief Publishers. 1993: Pepper Pig (Anne Clulow). Human & Rousseau 1993: Pepper Pig and the Robber (Anne Clulow). Human & Rousseau 1993: Pepper Pig and the Bad Rats (Anne Clulow). Human & Rousseau |
1993: Bubble Gum Mess (Anne Clulow). Human &
Rousseau
1993: Help! (Anne Clulow). Human & Rousseau
1993: Titch and Mitch go to France (Judith Garratt). Daan Retief Publishers
1993: The Beautiful Chinese Balloon (Judith Garratt). Daan Retief Publishers
1994: John Le Rre Noko (John Mathibe). Oxford University Press
1994: Princess, setshameki sa dibaesekop (Max Sed). Oxford University Press
1994: King Fob (Mitze Margolis). Daan Retief Publishers
1995: The Little Cat and the Greedy Old Woman. Human & Rousseau; Bodley Head
(UK); McElderry (USA); Zirkoon (Netherlands)
1995: From the Heart of Africa (Julius Oelke). Tafelberg Publishers
1995: Bert the Crusher (Elana Bregin). Human & Rousseau
1996: Scaredy Cat. Human & Rousseau; Bodley Head (UK); McElderry (USA) &
Little Red Fox (UK)
1996: Pit Wit and Fat Paw. Tafelberg Publishers
1996: Come Quickly. Tafelberg Publishers
1996: Sorry, I Lost the Baby. Tafelberg Publishers
1996: Hurry, Hurry. Human & Rousseau
1997: Wow! It's Great to be a Duck. Bodley Head (UK); McElderry (USA); Kematis
(Denmark) & Aladin Books (USA)
1998: Three Fat Cats (Nkululeko Lindi). Cambridge University Press
1998: Our House. Cambridge University Press
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© T.B. van der Walt, CLRU, University of South Africa. 2001
