The Upside Down Magic book series is a popular collection of children's fantasy novels written by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins. Book 8 in the series, titled "Upside Down Magic: Dragon Overnight," continues the magical adventures of Nory, Bax, and their friends at Dunwiddle Magic School. In this installment, Nory and her friends are excited about the upcoming overnight field trip to Dragon Haven. However, their excitement quickly turns to worry when they learn that the magical creatures at Dragon Haven are becoming unstable. The magical creatures, including dragons, unicorns, and griffins, are behaving oddly and causing chaos. It seems that the Upside Down Magic has somehow affected them.

Fish Magic, 1925 by Paul Klee

In Fish Magic, Paul Klee creates a magical realm where the aquatic, the celestial, and the earthly intermingle. A delicate black surface covers an underlayer of colors, which the artist revealed by scratching and scrawling designs in the black paint. At the center of the painting, a square of muslin is glued onto the canvas. A long diagonal line reaching to the top of the clock tower is poised as if to whisk off this subtle curtain.

Paul Klee's Fish Magic is set squarely within the tradition of German Romanticism, with its blend of fantasy and natural empiricism, of poetry and pragmatics. In this painting, made in the middle of the artist's period at the Bauhaus, the aquatic, celestial, and earthly realms intermingle. They do so in an inky black atmosphere of indeterminate scale and scope, where fish and flora float among human beings and clock towers. The delicate black surface that washes over the entire canvas covers an underlayer dense with multicolored pigments. Klee scraped and sanded the black paint to reveal mysterious specks and passages of glowing color underneath, a sophisticated version of the games children play with wax crayons. The artist also ingeniously conceived a device to imply that there are more mysteries waiting to be unveiled: Fish Magic is actually a collage, with a central square of muslin glued on top of the surface of the larger rectangular canvas. A long diagonal line reaching to the top of the clock tower from the side seems poised to whisk off this subtle curtain. For Klee, art was always theater, and, like all his paintings, this one offers a promise of more acts to follow.

Masterpiece Story: Fish Magic by Paul Klee

Paul Klee, Fish Magic, 1925, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

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Fish Magic is a mysterious and very fascinating work by Swiss-born German artist Paul Klee, a painter who balanced on the verge of a few modern art movements such as Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. The traces of all of them are present within this oneiric, almost fluorescent painting (but not really, read why!). It is crowded with weird, aquatic creatures which seem to flow out from the deep darkness to appear to the viewer for just a moment before vanishing again into the depths of Klee’s magical world.

When I was a child, my parents decorated a wall in our house with a reproduction of a warmly-colored painting with two small camels and a donkey lost in a composition of abstract rectangles. It turned out to be a painting by Paul Klee. It was through these little camels that my continuing fascination with the magical world of weird creatures living in Klee’s artworks began.

Paul Klee, With Two Dromedaries and One Donkey, 1919, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Bloomington, IN, USA. Detail.

Paul Klee was born to a family of musicians on December 18th, 1879 in a small Swiss town near Bern. Both the picturesque Alpine landscape and musical traditions had a great impact on his future works. At first he was supposed to be a musician, but eventually he decided on visual arts. At the age of 21, Klee moved to Munich, Germany to study at the Academy of Fine Arts.

What is absolutely surprising is that in the early years of his career Paul Klee was strongly focused on drawing, leaving the colors marginalized. He wasn’t very successful until 1911 when he joined the editorial team of the almanac Der Blaue Reiter, founded by Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky. This association of Expressionist artists finally opened Klee up to color theory. Moreover, a trip to Paris exposed him to the ferment of Cubism and early Abstract Art, leaving Klee fascinated by Robert Delaunay’s bold use of color.

Paul Klee, Fish Magic, 1925, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Detail.

All these experiences prepared a foundation for his artistic breakthrough, which came about during his travels to Tunisia. He wrote:

Color has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it, I know that it has hold of me forever… Color and I are one. I am a painter.

Paul Klee, cit. per Helen D. Hume, The Art Teacher’s Book of Lists.

After returning home, his style took a completely new direction. He began to mix techniques. He enriched his wide graphics experience with a new palette of vivid colors, simultaneously moving towards an abstract manner of painting. That’s how Klee’s unique style was born and opened doors to his great career. Klee taught at the Bauhaus from January 1921 to April 1931. At that point the times got dark and uneasy, also his art began to be considered degenerate by the Nazis. Soon he had to flee back to Switzerland.

Fish Magic is a mysterious and very fascinating painting from a time when Klee was experimenting with color. The painter used a very interesting technique to get the effect of fluorescent colors, as well as an impression of depth without using perspective. Subsequently this artwork is technically not exactly a painting. There is a piece of cloth glued to the base canvas and therefore this work should rather be classified as a collage.

Besides, the surface of the painting is covered with multiple layers of several bright hues such as blue, orange, red, and pink. Next he covered them with a layer of dark paint which registers as the actual background of the painting. Klee then used a stylus and some other tools to scratch out the elements which appear on the blackish surface. Depending on how deep he scratched different colors (from several colorful paint layers) appeared. The smooth, wavy lines in vibrant colors almost seem to move, drawing the creatures in front of the viewer’s eyes.

Paul Klee, Fish Magic, 1925, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Detail.

Fish Magic is filled with many magical creatures. There are truly fantastic fish and other aquatic beasts, there are plants and flowers, and also we can find some celestial bodies. To make it even weirder, there are some humanoids, geometric figures, and a clock tower! This motif appears quite frequently in works of the artist.

Klee was a painter who cannot easily be classified as a member of any specific art movement. He actually balanced on the verge of a few of them, including Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. The traces of all of these movements are present in this oneiric, almost fluorescent painting, crowded by weird, aquatic creatures which seem to flow out from the deep darkness to appear to the viewer for just a moment before vanishing again in depths of Klee’s magical world.

• 20th century
• Germany
• Paul Klee
• Philadelphia Museum of Art
• Switzerland

It seems that the Upside Down Magic has somehow affected them. Nory, Bax, and their friends take it upon themselves to solve the mystery and save Dragon Haven. They embark on a thrilling adventure, using their unique magical abilities to communicate with the magical creatures and find a way to restore balance.

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Fish magic

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Along the way, they encounter unexpected challenges and make new allies. The book explores themes of friendship, acceptance, and embracing one's differences. Nory, who has a shape-shifting ability but struggles to control it, learns to embrace her uniqueness and uses her upside-down magic in creative ways to help her friends and the magical creatures. The story emphasizes the importance of embracing diversity and celebrating the strengths of individuals, even if they are different from the norm. Throughout the book, the authors brilliantly blend fantasy elements with relatable emotions and experiences that children can easily connect with. The characters' growth and development, as well as their meaningful relationships, make this book a delightful read for young readers. Overall, Upside Down Magic Book 8 continues the enchanting and whimsical journey of Nory and her friends. It captures the essence of friendship, bravery, and the power of embracing one's unique talents. With its engaging storyline and relatable characters, this installment is sure to captivate readers and leave them eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series..

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