Pablo the Artist

by Satoshi Kitamura

Pablo the elephant has a problem. His art club is holding an
exhibition, and all he has is an empty canvas. Plagued by artist’s
block, Pablo sets out for the country, in hopes of finding fresh
ideas. But when he finishes his landscape, Pablo still isn’t
satisfied. It may just take the ingenuity of some friendly
woodland strangers to help Pablo realize his full artistic
potential.

Bursting with the author’s inimitable illustrations, this is an
uplifting story about teamwork and artistic vision.

Genres: Picture Books, Art, Childrens

28 pages, Hardcover

First published October 25, 2005

About the author

Satoshi Kitamura was born in 1956. After dropping out of school to pursue art, Kitamura decided not to attempt a 10-year apprenticeship as a potter and instead worked as a graphic artist. He was not trained as an artist, but at the age of 19 began to do commercial work as an illustrator for adverts and magazines. He moved from Tokyo to London in 1979 where he worked mainly at designing greeting cards.
Satoshi Kitamura has won several awards, including the Mother Goose Award, the National Art Library Award from the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a Nestle Children’s Book Prize Silver Medal. He lives in Japan.

Reviews

[Felicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pablo the Artist is the story of an elephant who experiences a painter's block, and with advice from his friends, goes out to the country for some inspiration to paint a landscape.

The dust jacket and front cover of the this book match. Both have a glossy finish picturing an elephant made to look slightly older, wearing glasses, suspenders, and a brown hat. There also seems to be animals watching him very closely, but it's unclear why. When you open the book and look at it cover to cover, you notice that it's a full bleed spread portraying a landscape. Once opening to the first page, you'll notice that the first endpage depicts a landscape during the day while the last endpage depicts the same landscape at night.

The opening page of the story pictures Pablo, the elephant and main character, staring toward his blank canvas with a disappointed look. The other animals in his art class are amid painting, but not Pablo. The next page shows Pablo in a series of situations - trying different paintings, but never finding one that was quite right. When his friends give him advice to go out to the country and try painting a landscape, Pablo sets out. The initial illustration of Pablo walking into a green grassy field is framed within a page. The border isn't very thick, but clearly focuses the reader in on his location and gives us a sense of the setting he's been placed within.

The next few events are illustrated in a very interesting way. Those animals on the front cover show up, this time with a clear purpose. When Pablo falls asleep, animals slowly begin to enter the storyline, contributing to Pablo's painting. Each page is framed with a border. The top of the page shows the animal that's about to approach the painting, while the bottom of the illustration shows that same animal in the act of contributing to the painting. When Pablo wakes up from his nap, the borders disappear and he rushes to his canvas to paint. Come to find, the framed instances where the animals came to contribute to Pablo's painting was all a part of his dream, which in turn - inspired his newest painting.

[CiroMartínez1520 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Las ideas provienen de los sueños, los sueños se vuelven arte a través de nuestras manos y nuestra creatividad.

[Dulce German]

This book is about an elephant that always had a dream of being the star of his town’s art exhibit. But he was sure what to paint so his friend told him to go out and paint a landscape. When he was out and paint he ended up falling asleep, that’s where he had a dream of what to paint. In the end, he was the star of the exhibit and everyone loved his painting. The main character is determined and never gives up. The book is in a structure for you to think that while the elephant is dream other things are happening and leads to thinking of what will happen once he wakes up. The illustration is water-based with different colors and tons, you are also able to see the emotions of the characters in the pictures. I really liked how the book was set up to make the reader think that while the elephant was dreaming other things were happening but actually it all was his dream. This book can be used when talking about dreams, we can have students draw or talk about a dream they’ve had before.

[Mercy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Satoshi presents Igor as a brilliant artist but when the big exhibition arrives, he seem to have lost all his artistic skills. However, Igor gets inspiration through a dream in which a sheep was painting. He wakes up and paints the most beautiful piece that becomes the star of the show.

[Samantta S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

La historia de Pablo con la búsqueda de crear es increíble. ¿De dónde proviene la inspiración? ¿Cómo sabremos qué es lo que debemos crear? Una historia que muestra el compromiso con tus ideas y el poder mejorarlas; siempre.☀️

[Zoe Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely story about the importance of perseverance and imagination!

[Alice Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great story about perseverance and inspiration

[Tatiana Gomes · Rating 4 out of 5]

interessante para abordar a pintura, criatividade, inspiração, sonho e colaboração.

[susyniod777 · Rating 5 out of 5]

de mis favoritos de toda la vida. lo tengo firmado. 🩷

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun story about an anthropomorphic elephant artist who needed some inspiration and went out into the country to paint a landscape.

The narrative is entertaining and the ending is a bit of a surprise. The illustrations are colorful and cartoonish, and Satoshi Kitamura's style is certainly recognizable. We enjoyed reading this book together.

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a cute story, but nothing that really "wow"-ed me. Characters are named after famous artists. Pablo has artist's block and has decided to paint a landscape but takes a nap before he does. When he wakes up he paints a great picture that makes him the star of the show. Good illustrations, bright colors and ok storyline.

[jacky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was featured on Between the Lions. This was an interesting story about art and dreams, a topic that I would never think to read a story about. I liked how the animals each added something to the painting, and then when Pablo wakes up we find out that we saw this dream and now he knows what to paint.

[Abril G. Karera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo mejor de los libros de Kitamura, después de leerlos uno mismo, es compartirlo con cuanto lector encontremos. Principalmente con los más pequeños. No cambio por nada las reacciones de mis alumnos con todas las historias de este brillante autor japonés. Y esta historia no es la excepción.

[Kylie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my two year old son's favourites. An elephant with artist's block - what a perfect idea for a children's book. It's gorgeous and really quite clever.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun! Especially the wolf at the end.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Satoshi Kitamura's work. Fabulous colour and pen work, humour and charm. Also, it kind of spoke to me right now... 'artist's block'!