My younger sister, Mary, completed these fabulous ink and watercolor pictures in the 1970’s and gave them to my sister, Sally, and me. I have all four of them now and I hope Sally doesn’t ever ask for hers back. Mary used the illustrations by Sir John Tenniel from the original 1865 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the 1871 sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. If you don’t have a copy of these books, the 1865 illustrations are available online here, courtesy of Project Gutenberg and the 1871 illustrations can all be found on Google images.
Mary spent hours reading and drawing when she was young. She and I loved to draw our own paper dolls — one of our favorite subjects was Pearl Pureheart, the girlfriend of Mighty Mouse. Even though Mary was five years younger than I, she was the better artist. She always kept a sketchbook and drew lots of pictures of her favorite characters. The Zeffirelli Romeo and Juliet and Dark Shadows were a couple of her favorite sources for portraits. I know Mary still has her sketchbooks, so maybe she’ll let me scan some of her drawings for a later post.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Mary Dellasega
ink and watercolor
12″ x 16″
Through the Looking Glass
Mary Dellasega
ink and watercolor
15″ x 23″
