Description: It's 1983, and American artist Joan Mitchell is in her studio outside Paris, transforming her emotions and memories into a symphony of colors and shapes. Inspired by her friend's description of an idyllic hidden valley in France, Mitchell creates 21 massive paintings-her Grande Vallâee series -bursting with vibrant, energizing hues. But she doesn't paint the valley's flowers and meadows. She paints a feeling about them-abundance, freedom, liveliness-creating a harmonious blend of drips, splashes, and brushstrokes in rainbow colors. When the paint dries, it's time to share her valley with the world.
Review Quotes: ★ "An exploration of Joan Mitchell's passionate, color-drenched, large-scale abstract paintings. Innerst's illustrations are fittingly exuberant, rendering Mitchell in grayscale against expressionistic brush strokes and drips in warm yellows, blues, deep greens, and pinks... simply marvelous."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"American abstract expressionist Joan Mitchell's dynamic style and approach are the subject of this lyrical, exuberantly colorful picture-book biography...Rogers' spare text emphasizes her focus and determined imagination as she works on the paintings, but it's Innerst's bold illustrations, filled with thick, bright brushstrokes in riotous color alongside angular, black-and-white drawings of the lanky artist in her studio, that showcase the power of her work."--Booklist "Vivid language describes Mitchell's art... Innerst's mesmerizing illustrations bring art to life... A lively invitation to explore an important mid-century woman artist and a visual feast that will ignite the imagination."--The Horn Book