The adbundance of wildlife around the area where I lived inspried me to try and paint. To my own surprise,I discovered I had a gift for painting animals and to this day painting remains of my most favourite things to do. Many layers of transparent watercolour paint and detailing with a fine script brush contribute to the unique technique I have developed over the years as a self taught artist. Click Here To View My PhotoGallery.

Teaching, painting, exhibiting my art, and spending time adventuring with my husband and two sons made for an extremely busy life. I took leave from my teaching career to devote more time to my wildlife painting and literally dreamed a way to combine both talents into one very satisfying career as a children's author and illustrator. I say literally because I actually woke up one morning remembering a dream in which I was standing, gazing up at the bookcase lined with bightly coloured books, all with my name on the spines as the author! The Shock woke me out of the dream and into the growing realization that this was what I really wanted to do next with my life! I've never looked back.

In addition to writing, painting, and producing books, I spend a great deal of time traveling, giving presentations and workshops in schools and libraries on writing and illustrating. I host workshops for both children and adult audiences, sharing stories, Illustrations , and writing strategies, illustrating techniques and "Work In Progress" to show what is involved in preparing a book for publishing. Click Here To View Audience Comments.

Click Here To Contact Bonita If you are interested in a school visit

Cont..

It was always my original intention to feature a different animal from our diverse Canadian wildlife in each of my childrens books, but i got a little sidelined on that goal with the popularity of my first book "Snowboarding Bunny". Motivated by all the letters I had received from readers to write more snowboarding adventures for Jonathan (My real son) and Sunny Bunny, I decided to create "Snowboading Bunny's Mountain Adventure". This book was inspired by my own two son's back country winter adventures. I had my story and illustrations carefully edited by the Canadian Avalanche Association so that safety cosiderations in back country winter adventures would be emphasized. Click Here To Learn More About This Book.

Still the letters kept coming, readers wanted further snowboarding adventures for my two characters! I knew i couldn't carry this line of stories further in a picture book format, so I decided to venture into chapter books. After ten years of writing picture books, I finally had the confidence to write a book where I would be painting with words instead of watercolour!

It took four years, but ICE, the first in a series of threee volumes titled"The Chronicles Of Mineria", is out there! It was a challenging project , but armed with a few strategies I had discovered while planning my picture books. I completed and thoroughly enjoyed creating this fantasy adventure. I look forward to creating the sequel, FIRE , this winter. As much as I appreciate our amazing natural world,sometimes it's fun to escape this beautiful place and let my imagination drift to a place of pure magic.

This Winter, I was also highly inspired to finally write and illustrate the story of our beloved little friend, Nibbles the mouse, in a new picture book for the Huckleberry Hollow Series called "One-Eye". Nibbles, my little signature mouse that hides in the illustrations of every book I have ever created, has found his way into the "Chronicles Of Mineria" as well.

Bonita Forsyth