image of person or book cover 6917870698265993612.jpg
Image courtesy of the author's website.
Graeme Base Graeme Base i(A42321 works by) (a.k.a. Graeme Rowland Base)
Born: Established: 1958 Amersham, Buckinghamshire,
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England,
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United Kingdom (UK),
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Western Europe, Europe,
;
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

Graeme Base came to Australia with his parents in 1966 at the age of eight. He attended Melbourne High School and from about the age of twelve he knew that he wanted to be a commercial artist. He studied graphic design at Swinburn College of Technology for three years and then joined the advertising world, creating newspaper advertisements, a job that he loathed. In his spare time Base did some freelance work for book publishers, illustrating book jackets and building up a portfolio.

His first publication was a book in verse with illustrations, My Grandma Lives in Gooligulch published in 1983. This was followed by perhaps his best known and most successful work, Animalia (1986) which gained him significant international attention and for which the illustrations took three years to complete. Over two million copies of this alphabet book have been printed world-wide. In 1987 it won several awards including being named an Honour Book in the Children's Book Council of Australia awards. The Eleventh Hour an illustrated mystery in verse which appeared in 1988 drew on his ideas collected in the game parks of Kenya and Tanzania. The clues to solve the mystery posed by the story are all to be found in the detailed illustrations.

One of Base's other great loves is music and he played drums before moving on to keyboard in a band called Rikitikitavi - the name was inspired by, although differently spelled from, Rudyard Kipling's mongoose. In 1999 he combined illustrating and music to produce The Worst Band in the Universe, which contained a CD of songs by entrants in the Worst Band in the Universe competition. Among his other publications are Days of the Dinosaurs (1985) a calendar titled Dragons, Draaks and Beasties which he followed up with The Discovery of Dragons in 1996. The Waterhole (2001) is a counting book in the style of Animalia with a similar level of illustrative detail. Base works in watercolours and transparent inks, but not oils, using whatever tools are necessary to create the effects he strives for.

Exhibitions

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • Base has also illustrated children's books by several other authors.
  • Voted number 17 in the Booktopia Top 50 Favourite Australian Authors for 2018

On the Web

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Pond The Pond; BumbleBunnies : Book 1 Sydney : HarperCollins Australia , 2018 16887258 2018 single work picture book children's
— Appears in: Graeme Base Collection: Volume 3 2024;

'Wuffle the puppy, Lou the kitten and Billington the duck are playing happily in the garden. But when disaster strikes, who will save the day?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2019 shortlisted Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards Birth to 3 Years
y separately published work icon The Pond The Pond; BumbleBunnies : Book 1 Sydney : HarperCollins Australia , 2018 16887258 2018 single work picture book children's
— Appears in: Graeme Base Collection: Volume 3 2024;

'Wuffle the puppy, Lou the kitten and Billington the duck are playing happily in the garden. But when disaster strikes, who will save the day?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2019 shortlisted Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards Birth to 3 Years
y separately published work icon Eye to Eye Melbourne : Penguin , 2015 8034302 2015 single work children's fiction children's

'Imagine you could soar high in the sky with an eagle or dive into the deep with a majestic blue whale.

'Come eye to eye with some of nature's most impressive creatures as Graeme Base takes you on a richly illustrated journey of imagination and possibility.' (Publication summary)

2016 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Notable Book Picture Book
2016 longlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Australian Book of the Year for Younger Children
Last amended 4 Jul 2019 10:43:30
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