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Online art gallery representing and exhibiting original artwork by leading book illustrators.

09/10/2026

BRIAN WILDSMITH (1930-2016)
My sincere thanks to Clare WILDSMITH for sending me the catalogue to the recent retrospective exhibition in South Korea for her father - the beloved Brian Wildsmith

This was the real deal - a seriously impressive, full-on event showing the full range of Brian’s work, talent and wonderful skill with colour and design. A true artist of extraordinary originality, whose influence is still felt, appreciated and absorbed. I am deeply sad that not to have been able to see this beautifully curated exhibition. It further underpins my belief that the appreciation for British book illustration in Asia is enormous.

In the many years of hosting our exhibitions at Illustrationcupboard Gallery in St James’s, I can honestly say that presenting Brian’s first solo exhibition in the UK was a career highlight. He was the most charming, kind man who became a good friend, sorely missed, but it has allowed me continued close friendship with his family,

04/10/2026

NEIL PACKER
‘The Greeks tricked their way in to Troy’

Produced for and illustrated in The Odyssey, retold by Gillian Cross, Walker Books, 2012
Gouache on paper
420 x 295mm
Pages 12-13
Signed by the artist
£TBA

The beginning of Gillian Cross’ second volume of her Homeric double begins with this dramatic frieze over two pages showing in detail the culminating drama of the Trojan Horse - the deciding moment when the towering equine edifice, pregnant with disaster, was ceremoniously hauled within Troy’s city walls.

Perhaps it’s me, but I can’t help but feel the essence of Picasso’s awful vision in his painting ‘Guernica’, infusing the spirit of this moment, the ruthless, inevitable decimation of a powerless victim to come...

This original and other work by Neil Packer is available for purchase and can been seen on our website. Link in the bio.

Walker Picture Books Walker Picture Books Walker Picture Books Books for Keeps The Bookseller The Booksellers Association

02/10/2026

Life on the riviera - I am thinking of selling up… This one is good. 🖼️

28/09/2026

NEIL PACKER
‘The Gods gazing down from high Olympus’

Produced for and illustrated in ‘The Odyssey’, retold by Gillian Cross, Walker Books, 2012
Gouache on card
430 x 275mm
Pps 14-15
Signed by the artist.
£TBC

The gods look on as impassioned as time ticks in the fall of the Trojan capital. This wonderful double page spread at the beginning on Gillian Cross’ wonderful retelling of Homer’s epic poem sets the scene for Odyssey’s fateful return to his Kingdom of Ithaca.

Neil’s superb imagination and technical mastery with eye-catching colour neatly blended so sympatheticly is masterful. I adore this double page spread. It draws one in ready for the tale to come...

This original and other work by Neil Packer is available for purchase and can been seen on our website. Link in the bio.

Walker Picture Books Walker Picture Books Walker Picture Books Books for Keeps The Bookseller The Booksellers Association

20/09/2026

‘’THE ILIAD’’ - NEIL PACKER
Front cover Artwork
Produced for and illustrated in ‘’The Iliad’’, retold by Gillian Cross, Walker Books, 2015
Gouache on board
Image size: 345 X 320mm
Signed
Published
£3950:-

This wonderful original front cover artwork by Neil says it all - the Homeric conflict of the Mycenaean Brinze age is shown here with a simplicity and directness. The two opposing Mediterranean empires, so similar that one can not distinguish one from the ither are shown conflicted with an intense gaze - eye to eye - predictiothat fateful duel between the two Himeric heroes Achilles and Hector, which initithe ultimate downfall of the great Asiatic kingdom.

I love this front cover - and does the job for which it was intended, driving rhe browser to open the book and read...

This original and other work by Neil Packer is available for purchase and can been seen on our website. Link in the bio.

Walker Picture Books Walker Picture Books Walker Picture Books Books for Keeps The Bookseller The Booksellers Association

17/09/2026

NEIL PACKER

‘’Diomedes Grabbed at the Reigns’’

Produced for and illustrated in ‘’The Iliad’’, retold by Gillian Cross, Walker Books, 2015
Gouache on board
Image size: 380 X 430mm
Signed
Published
£4250:-

Since early childhood, when my eccentric but fantastic classics teacher, who had sat on the airfields in 1940 waiting to scramble and reading repeatedly the Greeks sagas, related to us the epic battles at Troy, I had always been fascinated by the enigmatic, wily and fearsome King Diomedes of Argos about whom so little is known.

Credited with turning the tide as the Greeks were forced back onto their ships in the beaches at Troy, facing imminent annihilation at the hand of Prince Hector. Neil shows him, standing out with his darkened aspect and characteristic Greek beard, fearlessly driving his chariot forward.

A wonderful depiction of this moment of do-or-die. A genuine tooth and nail fight to the death as fate spins on a sixpence with the Gods furiously endeavouring to sway the balance of fate.

I can not help but feel that Neil, with his deeply eclectic and academic inspiration has drawn on the final battle scenes of the Bayeux Tapestry, currently so prominent in the news, and which I had the great fortune to see in situ at Bayeux some years ago.

The wild and wide-eyed horses, panicked with fear trampling the bodies of the wounded and slain. No punches are pulled, and the genuine horror of these carnal scenes is conveyed with the gritty directness of any graphic novel.

This spread is an absolute work of art and elongs in a museum. It is one of his finest in my opinion from his suite of work produced for The Iliad.

This original and other work is available for purchase and can been seen on our website. Link in the bio.

Walker Picture Books Walker Picture Books Walker Picture Books Books for Keeps The Bookseller The Booksellers Association

13/09/2026

NEIL PACKER

‘’Diomedes Grabbed at the Reigns’’

Produced for and illustrated in ‘’The Iliad’’, retold by Gillian Cross, Walker Books, 2015
Gouache on board
Image size: 380 X 430mm
Signed
Published
£4250:-

Was the the seminal moment of the Trojan War? King Nestor’s desperation persuaded Patroclus to borrow Achilles’ armour and drive the Trojans away from the ships - but ignoring the warning he irresponsibly charged the city gates, triggering his ultimate doom.

‘I don’t think anyone’s going home now’, utters Sean Bean’s Odysseus in Wolfgang Petersen’s blazing cinematic epic ‘Troy’. Prophetic words foreshadowing the gruemsome destruction of the Trojan capital, but also bizarrely hinting at the grim fate of his own men in their misguided adventures in Homers’s epic sequel - The Odyssey.

This original and other work is available for purchase and can been seen on our website. Link in the bio.

Walker Picture Books Walker Picture Books Walker Picture Books Books for Keeps The Bookseller The Booksellers Association

10/09/2026

Neil Packer
‘’They [Cyclopes[ stomped away up the hill’’

Produced for and illustrated in The Odyssey, retold by Gillian Cross, Walker Books, 2012
Gouache on board
Image size: 230 X 320mm
Signed
Published
£2250:-
Odyssey’s encounter with the Cyclopes surely has to be one of the most enduring episodes of this great classical Greek saga. The gripping fascination for this ‘monster’ who in many ways was the cictim of the wily greek’s incompetence in returning to his island kingdom.

Here Neil shows to wonderful effectiveness the clumsy, seemingly harmless comedy of the Cyclopes, one can almost hear in the background that iconic theme tune to Laurel and Hardy’s silent comedies... A superb depiction, and one so genuinely original — a masterpiece of its own making.

This original and other work from The Odyssey is available for purchase and can been seen on our website. Link in the bio.

Walker Picture Books Walker Picture Books Walker Picture Books Books for Keeps The Bookseller The Booksellers Association

03/09/2026

‘’Rope ladders came snaking down’’

Produced for and illustrated in ‘’The Odyssey’’, retold by Gillian Cross, Walker Books, 2012
Gouache on board
Image size: 380 X 430mm
Signed
Published artwork
£1850:-

Odyssey’s encounter on the mysterious island of Aeolus - I loved this wonderful spread from the very first moment I first saw it. A superb combination of simplicity, perspective and arrangement affording a powerful sense of motion, action imminence.

This original and other work from The Odyssey is available for purchase and can been seen on our website. Link in the bio.

Walker Picture Books Walker Picture Books Walker Picture Books Books for Keeps The Bookseller The Booksellers Association

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