A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin by Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet

A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin  written by Jen Bryant and illustrated by Melissa Sweet was published in 2013. I had never heard of Horace Pippin. Horace was born in 1888 on February 22. His grandmother had been a slave and he had large capable hands just like she did.

Horace was a hard worker and he loved to draw and paint. He spent his early years creating pictures for those he cared about. He was often asked to "Make a picture for us, Horace."

He used natural colors, but he liked to add a splash of red to his paintings.

Sweet's illustrations fill the page with quotes by Horace and images of things from his time. Sweet made art that matches his style of art.

As a young man, he served in WWI, and he was shot in the right shoulder and it weakened his arm and hand so that he could no longer draw or paint. After some time, he regains some strength in his right hand, and he uses his left hand to brace and hold his right arm and hand up so he can continue to create art. Pippin is an example of working hard for what he loved.

I went online after reading this picture book and looked at Horace Pippin's artwork. He said, "Pictures just come to my mind and I tell my heart to go ahead; and The war brought out all the art in me."

During WWI, he journaled and drew pictures in a notebook. Here are some of those pages.

Here are some of his paintings.

A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin is a Robert F Sibert Honor book.

We've had a few more donations to our NICU book project this week.

My sweet momma, Rolean Peterson sent this collection.

Aaron Reeder sent this fun selection.

Seth Dickson sent these cute books.

My cousin, Ben Grow sent me a big box of books. Some of these will go to local little free libraries, but many of them will head to the NICU babies. 

I appreciate each book that is donated to our project. Thank you all so very much. 

Link to our NICU book registry to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you.