Bronwyn Bancroft: Illustrator – Australia

Abstract

Bronwyn BancroftIllustrator – Australia Katarina Svenning Click for larger view View full resolution bronwyn bancroft was born in Tenterfield, New South Wales, in 1958. After training in both Canberra and Sydney, Bancroft has had a long and very productive career. She is an Aboriginal artist and a descendant of the Djanbun clan of the Bundjalung nation. She has worked as a fashion designer, an artist, a book illustrator, and an arts administrator. As a fashion designer, she was part of a group who were the first Australian fashion designers to show their work in Paris. In 1993, Bancroft began to illustrate children’s books. The first book she illustrated was Diana Kidd’s The Fat and Juicy Place which was shortlisted for the children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year and also won the Australian Multicultural Children’s Book Award. Bancroft has since then contributed with artwork for over twenty children’s books. Bancroft has also created a number of children’s books on her own, such as An Australian 123 of Animals and An Australian ABC of Animals. As an illustrator, Bancroft has a unique style, influenced by her aboriginal heritage, as well as by her work with fabrics and the other artistic media she has worked with. As well as being an illustrator, she has also worked with, jewelry design, painting, sculpturing, creating collages, and interior design. Bronwyn Bancroft has always had an interest in community activism. In 1992, her painting Prevention of AIDS was used in a campaign to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in Australia. In 2004, Bancroft was hired to do a mural covering the exterior of a sports arena in Marrickville. The mural depicts a snake, a man, and a woman, representing both biblical and Indigenous Australian creation stories. It also includes the goanna, the ancestral totem of the Marrickvillle area’s original inhabitants, the Wagal people. In 1994 Bancroft was the Australian candidate for the UNICEF Ezra Jack Keats International Award for Excellence in Children’s Book Illustration, and in 2009, she received the Dromkeen Medal for her contribution to children’s literature. She has been nominated for many other Australian as well as international awards throughout her career. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Remembering Lionsville. London: Allen & Unwin, 2013. Print. Google Scholar Why I Love Australia. Sydney: Little Hare Books, 2010. Print. Google Scholar Possum and Wattle: My Big Book of Australian Words. Sydney: Little Hare Books, 2008. Print. Google Scholar Stradbroke Dreamtime. By Oodgeroo Noonnuccal. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1993. Print. Google Scholar Big Rain Coming. By Katrina Gemein. Sydney: Puffi 2013. Print. [End Page 9] Google Scholar Copyright © 2016 Bookbird, Inc.