Kiki & Me

In his most personal book yet, Leo Timmers depicts the close friendship between Kiki and her horse. Through the horse’s eyes we watch them grow up together and discover the world. In beautifully detailed drawings in black ink against a white background, Timmers shows them quickly becoming so close that they are each other’s support and refuge. Those black-and-white images alternate with series of colourful, breathtaking spreads in acrylic, in which the horse and Kiki go out into the wide world. There the landscapes and skies dominate, and the characters are shown as tiny, almost insignificant, set against the majesty of nature.

As Kiki slowly grows up, she has to share her horse with someone else. Just when it seems as if Kiki doesn’t want her anymore, the horse gets a new companion. A companion she can share with Kiki and her friend. For ‘Kiki & Me’, Timmers learned how to use a dip pen to make fine line drawings full of shading, a supremely successful choice that places a lot of emphasis on the horse’s muscular body and its body language. This makes the horse extremely expressive in what it has to say. This intimate, moving book marks a new step in Timmers’ oeuvre.