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Ellen Beier
I grew up near New York City and started drawing with my grandmother,
a painter and sculptor. We’d take the train from her home in Brooklyn to
Coney Island Beach where we’d sketch the unsuspecting sunbathers on the
cots nearby. I studied architecture at Cornell University, and then art in
London, and at California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California
(B.F.A.).
In London, in the mid-70’s, a friend showed me her books of Arthur
Rackham’s fairy-tales and classics, and an early edition of "Alice in
Wonderland" illustrated by Tenniel. These works sparked my desire to
illustrate stories for children. As an architectural draftsperson at that time, I
filled the margins of my blueprint drawings with copious doodles of fairy-tale
images.
My first published works were for educational publishers in the San
Francisco Bay Area, and later for major trade publishers on the east coast.
From 1987-97 I lived in Hamburg, Germany where I was able to continue my
work for American publishers illustrating chapter books and biographies. My
first picture book was "Mrs.Peachtree and the 8th Avenue Cat" by Erica
Silverman, published in 1994. I had started sketches for "The Blue Hill
Meadows" by Cynthia Rylant when my son was born in 1994, and soon after
I was back at the drawing board working on a second Mrs. Peachtree book,
"Mrs. Peachtree’s Bicycle," followed by "The 18 Penny Goose", "The Promise
Quilt" by Candice F. Ransom, and a retelling of "Anne of Green Gables",
among others. In 2002-3, the "Pets to the Rescue" easy-reader series by
Andrew Clements was released; all 4 books in this series went on to become
Scholastic book club/book fair selections. In 2006 I designed and illustrated a
picture book for pre-schoolers, "Where Are My Animals?"
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