Born in Devon in 1935, David McKee studied at Plymouth College of Art and began his career as an illustrator by sending cartoons to newspapers. His third and fourth books, Mr Benn, Red Knight (1967) and Elmer, The Story of a Patchwork Elephant (1968) made a significant impact on children’s publishing and in 1978 he founded King Rollo Films which brought many


animations to the TV screen. With well over a hundred books to his sole credit, including Not Now, Bernard and Tusk Tusk, McKee is one of the UK’s foremost illustrators. He’s also a fine artist and painting has always been an important aspect of his life; something that’s apparent in the intricate technique he employs for his Elmer artwork, where liquid acryclic and gouache are worked into with coloured crayons and pencils to create a layered, painterly effect.


McKee’s non-naturalist approach to colour together with an interest in shape, contrast and pattern are evident throughout the Elmer books, and we don’t need to have read many of them before we feel at home in the jungle setting and begin to recognize landmarks. From the darkness of the monkey forest and the chalky whiteness of the cliffs to the tumbling waterfall and grandeur of Red Rock Pass, Elmer and friends inhabit a place possessing its own internal truth and logic, with colour as an intrinsic element. McKee has spoken of his admiration for the Fauves who used contrasting non-naturalist colours in their paintings, and there are echoes of Paul Klee’s rectangular building blocks in Elmer’s patchwork.


‘Colour has taken possession of me,’ Klee said, returning from a life-changing visit to the Mediterranean. ‘Colour and I are one.’ Elmer would definitely agree with that sentiment, and given the way his friends decorate themselves for Elmer’s Special Day would probably enjoy Miro and Matisse’s patterns, too. But then Elmer’s entire storyworld is shaped and patterned with a decorative eye. The unusual vegetation is a particular delight for those with a taste for the surreal, who may feel an urge to collect and identify these alien species, as well as admire them. It comes as no surprise to discover that one London school loved McKee’s trees so much, they asked him to paint them on the pillars of the Westway flyover.


McKee deplores the way that picture books are labelled as something for the very young and likes to work for all-age audiences. The Elmer stories are fun to read and enable even the youngest children to get involved, yet taken as a body of work they have a depth and integrity that appeals to older readers, too. The values Elmer represents shine clearly and cohesively throughout these books, which have a rare power – that of embedding themselves in hearts and minds, and helping people grow. And there’s nothing remotely juvenile about that.


Elmer’s 30th birthday celebrations include an exhibition, Elmer and Friends: The Colourful World of David McKee, currently showing at Seven Stories, the UK’s national centre for children’s books, and public sculpture trails featuring parades of decorated Elmers in Tyne and Wear, Suffolk and Devon organized by Wild in Art.


Carey Fluker Hunt is a writer and children’s book consultant.


www.elmer.co.uk


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