Education
He attended Saint Martin"s School of Art, London, supporting himself by taking commissions to decorate the homes of various London celebrities including Hermione Gingold.
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Ronald Ferns
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His first major official commission was a vast mural for the 1951 Festival of Britain, in the Country Pavilion, for the Milk Marketing Board. In the same year, he was also commissioned to create the acclaimed scenic design for the premiere of Fate’s Revenge by the Ballet Rambert. Throughout the 1950s, he contributed witty line illustrations, decorations and cartoons to many of the leading periodicals including Lilliput, for which he also painted several striking covers in colour, Punch, Picture Post, Scope, and Good Housekeeping, for which he drew a regular series entitled "Semolina Silkpaws".
He also illustrated a series of full-colour booklets for Guinness advertising campaigns.
Other important advertising work included elegant watercolour covers for Fortnum & Mason catalogues. His first book as both writer and artist, Osbert And Lucy (1988), was successful not only in Britain but also in the United States of America, and was translated into several European languages.
lieutenant was subsequently included in the 2003 anthology, The Hutchinson Book of Bunny Tales. His second book, Bumpity And the Big Snake, was published in 1994.
Consequently, his name was chiefly known within the publishing and advertising fraternities, where his prodigious skill as a draughtsman, and his unfailing warmth and wit, were much treasured.
Personality
He was a charming but self-effacing and very shy gentleman, who delighted in drawing and designing but who had no interest in publicity or self-promotion.
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Born
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Died
December 2, 1997 (aged 72) -
Nationality
English