Loren Long
Two-time Golden Kite award winner and New York Times #1 bestselling illustrator Loren Long is an artist straight from the heart of America. Born in Joplin, Missouri, and raised in Lexington, Kentucky, Long is a storyteller in pictures who draws on his roots to depict a soulful American landscape peopled with imaginative characters who take on mythic, even heroic, dimensions .
Long graduated from the University of Kentucky with a BA in Graphic Design/Art Studio and went on to do graduate studies at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. For a time he was an illustrator at the Gibson Greeting Card Company in Cincinnati. He gained recognition as an editorial illustrator for numerous magazines and newspapers in the 1990s, most notably Forbes, Time, Atlantic Monthly, and Sports Illustrated. He began illustrating book covers for Harper Collins, Penguin, Houghton Mifflin, and the National Geographic Society. In 1999 Long was commissioned to paint a grand-scale mural for a restaurant in Lincoln, Nebraska.
“The illustrations have a timeless feeling—
one of Long’s great gifts.”
Cincinnati Magazine
Long’s work is in the permanent collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum, the U.S. Golf Association’s Museum, and Sports Illustrated magazine. In November 2001 his work was included in an exhibition of noteworthy Ohio illustrators at the prestigious Centro Cultura Recoleta in Buenos Aires.
In 2002, the United Nations chose Long’s “The Firefighter” to hang with 21 other works of art from the Society of Illustrators’ expansive exhibition “The Prevailing Human Spirit.” In 2004 the Art Academy of Cincinnati presented a retrospective of Long’s picture book work.
Long has received numerous accolades for what The New York Times calls his “muscular style inspired by 1930’s W.P.A. murals.” He is a two-time Golden Kite recipient, and won a pair of gold medals in 2000 from the Society of Illustrators in New York.
In the January/February 2006 issue, Loren was featured in Communication Arts International Design Magazine.
“Steeped in the American Regionalist tradition, Long is a disciple of Benton and Curry…
His art, like theirs, worships place, and… mines his roots, his home, his homeland, for American themes.”
Cincinnati Magazine
Long believes his calling as a storyteller lies in illustrating children’s books, often coupling his art with iconic American literary works. His challenge, met with flying colors if the critics be believed, is to match the soaring poetry of Walt Whitman or the timeless lesson of “the little engine that could” with images as lasting and resonant.
In 2003 superstar singer Madonna chose Long to illustrate her story, Mr. Peabody’s Apples (Callaway), which skyrocketed to #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list.
In the same year, Long won the prestigious Golden Kite Award for best picture book illustration from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators for I Dream of Trains, by Angela Johnson (Simon & Schuster). His illustrations were hailed as “stately paintings” in a Kirkus starred review, and “breathtaking backdrops” by Publishers’ Weekly.
“The colors and shapes and bodies in his best work look as if they are moving to the rhythm of a jazz riff.”
Cincinnati Magazine
Long won a Golden Kite Honor in 2004 for his illustrations in Walt Whitman’s When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer (Simon & Schuster), which also won the 2004 Parents’ Choice Gold Award. The New York Times said Long’s pictures “make the wonder of the stars, of the imagination rather than the analytical intelligence, as visible to us as it was to Walt Whitman.”
The new edition of Watty Piper’s The Little Engine That Could (Philomel) was published in 2005 and features all-new illustrations by Long. This book was a childhood favorite of his. The book chugged its way to #1 on the NY Times Best Seller List in 2006.
Long hit a home run in 2007 with the first volume of the Barnstormers chapter book series, making his third appearance on the NY Times Best Seller List. Long is illustarting the series as well as co-writing them with fellow vintage baseball fanatic Phil Bildner.
Loren can be found drawing each and every day at his house near Cincinnati, Ohio, where he lives with his family and a Weimaraner, Stella.
Newspaper articles/interviews with Loren:
Cincinnati Post, Nov. 8, 2003:
”Madonna's illustrator — West Chester artist captures
diva's vision for children's story“ >
Cincinnati Enquirer, Nov. 9, 2003:
”Madonna's book was a natural fit“ >
Cincinnati CityBeat, Sept. 10–16, 2003:
”Trainspotting — Ohio author and illustrator team up
to make Dream a reality“ >
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