reviews_and_ramblings | Behind the Cover: Albert Slark

Award-winning artist Albert Slark grew up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Coming from a family of artists and musicians, a passion for the artistic side of life has always been a part of him. So it came as no surprise that he developed a passion for art at an early age.

At the age of 15 he became fascinated with the art of Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta. Influenced by their work, he was inspired to embark upon a career in illustration.

In 1990 he graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design, majoring in visual communications. Postgraduate studies include classical drawing and painting, both in New York and Toronto. Soon after graduating, Al made Toronto his home and sought a career in illustration.

A versatile artist, Al has illustrated book covers from action adventure to westerns. Best known for his romance illustrations for Harlequin and Zebra (because of all the fan mail he gets from authors and readers alike), he has illustrated well over 400 book covers to date. Many of his early book covers were illustrated in oil. Since 1998 Al has been working digitally, but still gets the odd cover that is requested by the publisher to be finished in oil.

One of three Canadians to be commissioned by the United States Postal Service (USPS), Al has painted six stamps -- the most famous being that of Marian Anderson, a 37-cent stamp currently in circulation.

Al recently won a certificate of merit from the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington. In the highly competitive contest for best illustrations of 2006. It was for his portrait in oil of Marian Anderson (USPS) that garnered the prize. The portrait of Marian Anderson was also exhibited at the Society of Illustrators 48th Annual Exhibition in New York.

With the release of Marian Anderson, Al has been featured in several newspaper articles and TV interviews. Newspaper coverage has included the Toronto Sun, Toronto Star and the National Post. As for TV appearances, Al has appeared on CBC, City TV, Cable 10 and was proud to be interviewed by Sandy Rinaldo as part of a CTV success story.

In addition to USPS, Harlequin and Zebra, Al has worked with clients including Atari Games, Club Med, Dalmatian Press, Degree Deodorant, Kensington Publishing, Kids Can Press, Pocket Books, Scholastic Canada, Steve Jackson Games and TSR Inc. (most famous for Dungeons & Dragons) and the list goes on.

To keep his creativity on the cutting edge, Al paints from life whenever possible and also attends workshops. Favourite workshops by Mr. Steven Assael and most recently with Mr. Yugi Wang.

When not illustrating book covers, Al is an avid reader and has a collection of books well exceeding 2000 in number mostly books on art, religion and philosophy; he also has a vast library of music which he listens to when he paints. He also accepts private commissions -- mostly portraits and works on his own art. But the passion doesn’t stop with drawing and painting. He also enjoys playing the drums (owns one of Neil Peart’s old drum kits) to the music of his favourite Canadian rock group Rush.