The highly successful Rip Squeak(TM) program continues to expand with the release of four limited edition giclee on canvas prints by Leonard Filgate. They are The Best Medicine, Toy Room Band, Star Dancers, and The Snowman. The number of available limited editions for galleries is now thirty-two. (Six of the earlier editions are now sold out.) The retail price range is from $200 to $1,000.
Many of the limited editions originated with the ongoing series of children’s books, Rip Squeak and His Friends and the newly released Rip Squeak and His Friends Discover THE TREASURE, written by Susan Yost-Filgate and illustrated by Leonard Filgate, a husband-wife team based in Carmel, California. The children’s books are available in bookstores, nationwide, as well as through amazon.com. Spanish-language editions will be released in 2003. The whimsical images also appear in two art books: Rip Squeak and His Friends, an Introduction to the Roaring Adventures of Rip Squeak and Pirate Tales and More.
Leonard Filgate’s richly detailed, painterly approach to illustration has been recognized by the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington. The prestigious museum has scheduled an exhibition of Filgate’s original paintings and drawings to run December 2004 through February 2005. The museum offers an outstanding overview of American art from Winslow Homer to Andrew Wyeth and Howard Pyle.
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books has honored Leonard Filgate by choosing illustrations from Rip Squeak and His Friends as the featured artwork for their eighth annual festival, to be held at UCLA on April 26 and 27, 2003. The Reader (soon to be released as a limited edition print) and other images from the book will be included in both print and electronic advertisements. Rip Squeak, Inc and Los Angeles Times Communications LLC (sponsor and promoter) have also entered into a world-wide, non-exclusive, one year licensing and merchandising agreement to use Filgate’s illustrations for a variety of products.
In addition, MasterPiece Puzzle Company and Rip Squeak, Inc. entered into a licensing agreement to create jigsaw puzzles based on The Best Medicine, In The Garden, and Harmony II. The first puzzles are scheduled for release in January 2003.
Galleries interested in participating in the Rip Squeak™ program may contact Beda Schmidthues at 800.251.0654 or at www.ripsqueak.com.
Leonard Filgate is a Premiere Portfolio Artist at absolutearts.com. More works may be viewed at http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/r/ripsqueak/
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