Artist’s work honoured
SPECIAL DVD IS MARKING THE 80TH BIRTHDAY OF ANIMATOR
IN the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown, North East artist, animator and teacher Sheila Graber marked her 80th birthday.
In celebration of her birthday and illustrious career, the North East Film Archive and The Customs House in South Shields have produced a limited-edition two-disc DVD - Sheila Graber: An Animated Life.
From pastel to pixel, Sheila has produced more than 100 films from her home-based studio covering a wide range of subjects.
In 2012 the North East Film Archive was privileged to acquire this internationally significant animation collection.
Mainly shot on 16mm and 8mm cine film, the footage is a fascinating window into Sheila’s animated legacy.
In this special production, Sheila takes us through some of the best of her animations over the decades.
The two DVDs are carefully curated into four key sections: Northern Roots, Art History, Animals and Nature and a lifelong love and inspiration - Cats.
Sheila Graber was born in South Shields in 1940.
Trained in fine art and education, she began animating “just for fun” in 1970.
Ten years later the hobby turned into profession as she gave up her post as Head of Creative Studies at a large comprehensive school to pursue animation full time.
he North East, and South Shields in particular, is in Sheila’s soul and was the inspiration for her early work. ‘My River Tyne’ is one of several animations which draw on her Geordie background.
An eclectic mix of documentary footage, photographs and original artwork combine to tell a stirring story of the River Tyne, Sheila weaves together industrial history with fragments from a childhood as the daughter of a Tyne Pilot Master.
She said: “I guess I have been lucky to have had a very animated life, drawing, painting, teaching, travelling and of course animating.
“I am delighted to have collaborated with the North East Film Archive in my 80th year to create this DVD.
“Learn more about the techniques and the subjects which have caught my eye over the years and by purchasing the DVD you are helping to support two charities which are close to my heart.”
Sheila’s Northern Roots also include the quick-fire cartoon dayin-the-life of the BBC Look North TV news team with a starring role for the genial Geordie presenter Mike Neville.
You can learn how to speak the local North East lingo with a riotous animation of Scott Dobson’s popular vernacular lessons in ‘Larn Yersel Geordie’ or chart the history of women’s revolutionary road to freedom in the North East - from Stone Age sister to suffragette in ‘Howway the Lasses’.
Sheila has a love of art in all itsforms and the DVD explores art history through creative and expressive animations.
The first DVD of the twodisc limited-edition offering also includes a plasticine stop-motion animation
‘Dance Macabre’, inspired by Bill Tytla’s Devil Sequence in Fantasia.
You can also get festive with a highly imaginative cut-out animation, ‘12 days of Christmas’.
The second DVD brings to life Sheila’s love of animals and especially cats.
‘The Boy and the Cat’, Sheila’s first short animated film for children, follows mischievous characters modelled on her nephew and pet cat Whitey, the action taking place in the shadow of the docks in South Shields.
Ray Spencer MBE, Executive Director, The Customs House said: “We are delighted to work with the North East Film Archive to produce this DVD.
“Sheila is an icon of animation and for more than half a century has been enthralling people with glorious storytelling in her own unique style.
“It is right her work should now be available in this definitive collection to a whole new audience.”
Sheila has won many awards and international acclaim.
She created the animation for Paddington Bear and Mr and Mrs Brown for the television series Paddington.
Sheila’s early 1980s animations of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories for Nicole Jouve of Interama were distributed across the globe.
To complete the story we go way, way back to the beginning with an imaginative, rhythmic animation as Sheila considers Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, from a single cell to a population explosion and beyond.
Graham Relton, archive manager of the North East Film Archive, added: “Sheila Graber’s animations are a highlight of the North East Film Archive collections.
“We are delighted to have produced this DVD so audiences across the world can take a glimpse inside the creative mind of this truly inspirational and talented woman, a pioneer in her field but very much down to earth.
“It is no wonder she was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Royal Television Society. ”
The DVD is packed with entertaining animations which will interest people of any age, understand some of the animation techniques and be inspired to get creative wherever you are in the world.
‘Sheila Graber: An Animated Life’ is available from The Customs House, Mill Dam, South Shields, NE33 1ES or online at www.yfanefa. com/sheila_graber_an_animated_ life priced at £15 (running time 128 minutes).