ARENA – ARTIST SPOTLIGHT ON MATTHEW LAND
We caught up with Matthew just after the recent publication of 'The Wall Between Us', featuring his stunning cover illustration and asked him about his process.
Matthew’s cover illustration for Dan Smith’s, The Wall Between Us is the second collaboration between the author and illustrator for Chicken House books. It’s a thrilling historical adventure set in Berlin in 1961. Friends, Anja and Monika live opposite each other and play together every day, with Otto the cat. One night, they wake up to bangs and shouts. Soldiers are building a huge barbed wire fence between them and each day, this wall gets longer and higher until it divides the whole city. Monika on the East side is scared as neighbours become spies and there are secret police everywhere. Then Anja spots that Otto has found a way across and if he can visit Monika, maybe she can too? But Anja gets trapped and there’s no safe way back…
You can read about the design process behind Matthew’s cover and we also take a peek inside his studio and find out the 5 artists he’d like to share a studio space with over in this interview.
Matthew Land is represented by Arena Illustration.