Mermaid Artists 2 – Peg Maltby

... well to be honest, Peg Maltby is strictly speaking, more of a fairy artist than a mermaid artist but she did create this wonderful baby mermaid and water fairies piece for her short story "Fun Under the Sea" in her gorgeous book Peg's Fairy Book, which was published in Australia in 1946. I have a copy and I used to look at these pictures over and over again when I was a little girl. I showed Jozef the other day and he was captivated by them, especially this lovely illustration. What I didn't know was that this book sold over 100,000 copies in its time. It was reprinted again in the mid 1970s but it's difficult to get copies of either version now (although it is showing up by some resellers on Amazon, which will cost you a pretty penny).

You can read all about Peg and see more of her work on the Australian Fairy Artists Society website. You can also take a look at the first edition cover at the State Library of Victoria's Your Treasures site.