Maestro Marek Szyszko -

 Salvete Omnes,

[in Polish]

  Maestro Marek Szyszko udzielil wywiadu IPNtv pt 'Historia ilustrowana. Marek Szyszko o tym jak malujemy przeszłość - cykl Uczy i bawi.'

 prace mosci pana Marka wykonane w technice gwaszowej dla Karwansaray Publishers 

Ilustracje - Copyright @ Karwansaray Publishers .

Valete

Marek Szyszko in Osprey Military Pub.

 Salvete Omnes,

this post is not an advertisement for a product, ie., a book, but a quick wholehearted shout-out to all fellow net-travelers  about a friend's journey in publishing and art of illustration history.

copyright @ Osprey Military Publishing

My friend maestro Marek Szyszko from Warsaw, Poland UE, has finally illustrated a volume for Osprey Military Publishing.

For some years I had been advocating Mrek's brushes and his wonderful art to various history publishers in the 'West.'

examples of Marek's cover for *Karwansaray 

About 9 years ago I started lobbying for maestro Marek with the Karwansaray Publishers (of Ancient Warfare Magazine, Ancient History Magazine and Medieval World Magazine et al.) and they readily welcomed maestro Szyszko into their stable of artists and illustrators. 

At the same time I asked the Spanish publisher - Desperta Ferro Ediciones - if they were interested in Marek's talent and expertise in the historical illustration art. They also readily welcomed maestro Szyszko and they have been steadily using Marek's art in their publications ever since (eg these illustrations). Note that my friends Dariusz Bufnal and Mariusz Kozik also had their art published there.

Then, after a year or two later we sent letters to Osprey Military Publishing with the same inquiry.
To my chagrin their editors'  response was negative.

But I did not rest and quietly lobbied for Marek's brushes at Osprey's. Finally last year it took talking to an Italian lawyer, military history researcher  and author Raffaele D'Amato and  his decision to lobby for and to propose Marek Szyszko as his illustrator for the Goths' volume. 

The result of their collaboration (including another Italian searcher and author Andrea Salimbeti) can be seen in this newly published volume: the 8 plates of exquisite and beautiful art  not seen in Ospreys  since the works of late masters Angus McBride and Richard Hook.

Copyright @ Bellona

Nota bene Polish publishing house - Bellona - released an album  of their 'Historyczne Bitwy' military series' covers painted over the years by maestro Marek. 

This is a first volume contains cover art covering the period from ancient - starting with the battle of Kadesh of 1274BC -  to the XVIII century period - Fallen Timber 1794AD. 

Enjoy
ps

*the covers are all from Karwansaray Publishers web and their copyright protected. 

Valete

Imci Pan Marek Szyszko - artist extraordinary

Salve,
recently I had the privilege of corresponding with imci pan Marek Szyszko, one of the foremost historical illustrators in Poland and indeed, of the rest of the world. His ability to recreate historical figures, real and fictional, ranging from ancient men and women, warriors, soldiers, and priests to everyday folks is quite extraordinary - be it in line drawings, comics style or purely painterly way.
So I would like to introduce pan Marek and his art on my blog!

I should add I grew up with pan Marek's art - from his comics (eg Tajemnica Kipu  - Mystery of Quipu) to

illustrations found in the children's books like 'Historia Polski dla Piotrka' ('History of Poland for Pete') and his famous illustrations for Sienkiewicz's Trylogia, The Teutonic Knights, and Quo Vadis volume, or many bookcovers for the Bellona battles and campaigns series, and many others.

Recently pan Marek painted fabulous plates for  Wojska zakonu niemieckiego w Prusach 1230-1525 , well researched and finely written academic work published by the University of Torun 'Wydawnictwo Naukowe'- you could look at the larger samples here, here and here.

Pan Marek kindly allowed me to show here some of his horse-oriented works, and I am truly very happy to share them with you. As you can see the horses painted vary, different types and breeds are shown, in the true tradition of old Polish painters, like Wojciech Kossak, Jozef Brandt, Michal Bylina et many others.

enjoy
ps the first image is from a new book published by Bellona publishing house from Poland, on the Bar Confederation 1768-72 - on February 29 we just passed another anniversary of this historic event .