Growing up in Whitefield, Gustav Moore's boyhood adventures in the woods and fields of his family's farm on Townhouse road have given him a deep appreciation and love of the natural world. As a young boy he enjoyed drawing, painting and photographing his experiences on the farm. Later, Gustav attended Rochester Institute of Technology as photography major. While at RIT he discovered the magic of illustration and after a year of photography changed his major, graduating with a degree in illustration in 1996. After a summer stint in Alaska, working on a commercial fishing boat, Gustav returned to Maine, settling in Portland. Showing his portfolio to anyone who would take time to look he finally found a break with Tilbury House Publishers, who asked him to illustrate a children's book titled Stonewall Secrets. Using Whitefield as the backdrop and many of his neighbors as models, Gustav created colorful illustrations depicting a grandfather and his grandson walking along the stonewalls of their New England farm. As the two made their way around the farm the grandfather would find unique stones within the walls and explain to his grandson how they were created and the natural history behind them; giving his grandson a sunny fall day lesson in geology and natural history. After completing Stonewall Secrets, Tilbury House offered to have Gustav illustrate another children's book titled Everybody's Somebody's Lunch. Again returning to Whitefield to find inspiration, Gustav created detailed watercolor illustrations, this time depicting the relationship between predators and pray in the wild. In this book a young girl finds that a wild animal has killed her cat and she begins a journey to understand how animals survive in the wild. Finishing the two project for Tilbury, Gustav found a job with L.L. Beans working in the creative department where he helped create the 
company's catalogs. Itching to return to painting he soon found work with Millbrook Press illustrating a series or four picture books for young reads that depict the cycles found in nature. The first of the series is complete and called Earth Cycles, which follows the earth through its cycles of day and night, the seasons and the phases of the moon. The second will be Life Cycle, the third Body Cycles and the fourth Re-Cycles. Always interested in nature, Whitefield and his family's farm Gustav often returns to Townhouse road to find inspiration, fresh air and the company of his family and neighbors.

Be sure to visit Gus's own website:

http://www.gustavmoore.com

Contact information:

Gustav Moore
#9 Twin Knolls Lane
Portland, Me. 04102
773-4708
gusmoore@hotmail.com

return to Whitefield Artists page

return to home page