, July 18, 1942 - Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, June 22, 2006), better known as Asun Balzola, was a Spanish autodidact illustrator, writer and translator. After partially recovering from a severe car crash, she studied painting

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 and graphic arts

Graphic arts

A type of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of art forms. Graphic art is typically two-dimensional and includes calligraphy, photography, drawing, painting, printmaking, lithography, typography, serigraphy , and bindery. Graphic art also consists of drawn plans and layouts for interior...

 at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando

The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando , located on the Calle de Alcalá in the heart of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery....

in Madrid. Balzola worked in advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

 and graphic design

Graphic design

Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...

, in addition to her work in the fine arts. Among other awards, she received the Lazarillo Prize for her illustrations and has twice earned the Spanish National Illustration Prize.

Asun Balzola's illustration style is best known for the use of color blotches and thick lines (frequently painting using a watercolour technique). Her files and library were donated, posthumously, to the Centro de Documentación Infantil of the Central Library at San Sebastián

San Sebastián

Donostia-San Sebastián is a city and municipality located in the north of Spain, in the coast of the Bay of Biscay and 20 km away from the French border. The city is the capital of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. The municipality’s population is 186,122 , and its...

.

Some works illustrated by Asun Balzola

• Las noches del gato verde, by Elizabeth Mulder. Anaya. 1962.
• Cancionero infantil universal, by Bonifacio Gil. Aguilar. 1965. Lazarillo Prize.
• La niña sin nombre, by J. L. García Sánchez and M. A. Pacheco. Altea. 1978. (Girl with no name. Methuen, 1979.)
• El niño y el robot, by J. L. García Sánchez and M. A. Pacheco. Altea. 1978. (Boy and his robot. Methuen, 1979.)
• Platero y yo, by Juan Ramón Jiménez
  Juan Ramón Jiménez
  Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956. One of Jiménez's most important contributions to modern poetry was his advocacy of the French concept of "pure poetry."-Biography:Jiménez was born in Moguer, near Huelva, in...
  
  . Bruguera. 1980.
• Zuecos y naranjas, by Montserrat del Amo. La Galera. 1981.
• La bruja doña Paz, by Antoniorrobles. Miñón. 1981.
• Txitoen istorioa, by Bernardo Atxaga
  Bernardo Atxaga
  Bernardo Atxaga is a Basque writer and self-translator.-Biography:Atxaga was born in Asteasu, Gipuzkoa, Basque Country), in 1951. He received a diploma in economics from the University of Bilbao, and studied philosophy at the University of Barcelona...
  
  . Golden Award, Bratislava Biennale. 1985.
• La cacería, by Bernardo Atxaga
  Bernardo Atxaga
  Bernardo Atxaga is a Basque writer and self-translator.-Biography:Atxaga was born in Asteasu, Gipuzkoa, Basque Country), in 1951. He received a diploma in economics from the University of Bilbao, and studied philosophy at the University of Barcelona...
  
  . Altea. 1986.
• Celia en la revolución, by Elena Fortún
  Elena Fortún
  Encarnación Aragoneses Urquijo , Spanish author of children's literature who wrote under the pen name, Elena Fortún. She became famous for Celia, lo que dice the first in the series of children's novels which were a collection of short stories first published in magazines in 1929...
  
  . Aguilar. 1987.
• Un montón de Unicornios, by Ana Maria Machado
  Ana Maria Machado
  Ana Maria Machado was born in 1941 in Rio de Janeiro and is, alongside Lygia Bojunga Nunes and Ruth Rocha, one of the most significant children's book authors in Brazil. She started her career as a painter in Rio de Janeiro and New York City. After studying Romance languages she did a PhD with...
  
  . SM. 1990.
• Papá ya no vive con nosotros, by Manuel Alonso. SM. 1992.
• Poemas para la pupila, by Juan Cruz Iguerabide. Hiperión. 1995.
• El primer gigante, by Teresa Durán. La Galera. 1995.
• Cuando los gatos se sienten tan solos, by Mariasun Landa. Anaya. 1997.

Some works written and illustrated by Asun Balzola

• Historia de un erizo. Miñón. 1978. Spanish National Illustration Prize.
• Munia y la luna (Apel·les Mestres Prize 1980). Los zapatos de Munia. Munia y el cocodrilo naranja. Munia y la señora Piltronera (Spanish National Illustration Prize 1985). Munia y los hallazgos. Destino. 1980-1988. (Munia and the moon. Munia and the red shoes. Munia and the orange crocodile. Munia and the day things went wrong, Cambridge University Press, 1988-1989.)
• Santino el pastelero. Destino. 1986.
• Ala de mosca. Pirene. 1989.
• La cazadora de Indiana Jones. SM. 1989.
• El niño dibuja la noche. Nada como los disfraces. Buscar a María. Scott Foresman. 1999.

External links

• Amigos del Libro Biobibliography up to 2001
• The author, interviewed in 2002