This charming fall exhibition features works from Front Porch Tales and North Country Whoppers, one of DePaola’s lesser-known gems.

On view August 13 to October 19, 2025

Category: dePaola

Credit: Tomie dePaola's Front Porch Tales & North Country Whoppers: Pages 28/29, 2007

Acrylic on watercolor paper. Anonymous Gift, 2021.40.20

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About the show:

This exhibition celebrates the life of Tomie dePaola (1934-2020) with illustrations from Front Porch Tales & North Country Whoppers, published in 2007. These humorous stories highlight dePaola’s wit and comic genius, as well as his genuine affection for the human and animal denizens of New Hampshire and Vermont, where these narratives unfold. In each tale (or whopper), dePaola explores the common environmental travails New Englanders face each season. He populates them with memorable characters, including the crafty mailman George Petty, who delivers mail in mud season with aid of his trusty horse, or the adorable “Mothah Skunk” and her kits, whose move from one den to another is precipitated by Sherman Curtis’s hygiene, or lack thereof.

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The making of a classic:

Beginning with his concept, dePaola spent countless hours fleshing out the characters, settings, and the narrative arcs of his tales in sketches and storyboards. In conversations with dePaola, the Currier’s curators learned that his painting process was effortful and exacting, starting with simple contour sketches in graphite that would then lead into multi-colored versions of illustrations using ink pens, watercolors, and acrylic paints. Having learned from his beloved mentor, artist Ben Shahn, that a picture should read as clearly on a postage stamp as it would as a mural, dePaola’s classic drawing style was clean and his colors deliciously rich. This presentation was selected from dePaola’s paintings for Front Porch Tales & North Country Whoppers, which were incorporated into the design of the book when it was published.

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About the artist:

Tomie dePaola wrote and illustrated more than 270 children’s books over his 50-year career, including picture books, folk tales, nursery rhymes, and chapter books. He had a masterful ability to express complicated emotions through accessible narratives and sympathetic illustrations, with warm and lively characters.

A longtime resident of New Hampshire, dePaola taught at Colby Sawyer College in New London and New England College in Henniker. He had an international following and appeared in several episodes of Barney & Friends and in the Jim Henson Company series Telling Stories with Tomie dePaola. The NH State Council on the Arts honored DePaola as a Living Treasure in the Arts, and his many national accolades include the Children's Literature Legacy Award.

In 2023, the United States Postal Service released a Forever Stamp at the Currier in recognition of dePaola’s life and art. The stamp features a detail from the cover of Strega Nona, which received a Caldecott Honor Award for outstanding children's literature in 1975. Since 2020, the Currier has presented and interpreted a wide selection of his original drawings and paintings in numerous exhibitions devoted to the artist. The Currier’s collection includes the largest collection of dePaola’s work of any public museum in the world.

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Related events:

Art Off the Walls

September 18

5 to 8 pm

Donation-based admission

This one’s for the kids (and the kids in all of us). Join us for a special edition of Art Off the Walls celebrating our newest exhibition of work by beloved artist Tomie dePaola. Hear from five local artists who create for young people. Then, watch art unfold in real time as they participate in a sketch off – winner decided by the audience!

If you’ve ever shared a favorite storybook, admired the emotional depth of illustrations, or returned to the life lessons first discovered between the pages, you’ll enjoy this tribute to art that helps all of us keep growing up with wonder.

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