With over thirty four million books in print, Jan Brett is one of
the nation's foremost author illustrators of children's books. Jan
lives in a seacoast town in Massachusetts, close to where she grew
up. During the summer her family moves to a home in the Berkshire
Hills of Massachusetts.As a child, Jan Brett decided to be an
illustrator and spent many hours reading and drawing. She says, "I
remember the special quiet of rainy days when I felt that I could
enter the pages of my beautiful picture books. Now I try to
recreate that feeling of believing that the imaginary place I'm
drawing really exists. The detail in my work helps to convince me,
and I hope others as well, that such places might be real."As a
student at the Boston Museum School, she spent hours in the Museum
of Fine Arts. "It was overwhelming to see the room-size landscapes
and towering stone sculptures, and then moments later to refocus on
delicately embroidered kimonos and ancient porcelain," she says.
"I'm delighted and surprised when fragments of these beautiful
images come back to me in my painting."Travel is also a constant
inspiration. Together with her husband, Joe Hearne, who is a member
of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Jan visits many different
countries where she researches the architecture and costumes that
appear in her work. "From cave paintings to Norwegian sleighs, to
Japanese gardens, I study the traditions of the many countries I
visit and use them as a starting point for my children's
books."
With over thirty four million books in print, Jan Brett is one of
the nation's foremost author illustrators of children's books. Jan
lives in a seacoast town in Massachusetts, close to where she grew
up. During the summer her family moves to a home in the Berkshire
Hills of Massachusetts.As a child, Jan Brett decided to be an
illustrator and spent many hours reading and drawing. She says, "I
remember the special quiet of rainy days when I felt that I could
enter the pages of my beautiful picture books. Now I try to
recreate that feeling of believing that the imaginary place I'm
drawing really exists. The detail in my work helps to convince me,
and I hope others as well, that such places might be real."As a
student at the Boston Museum School, she spent hours in the Museum
of Fine Arts. "It was overwhelming to see the room-size landscapes
and towering stone sculptures, and then moments later to refocus on
delicately embroidered kimonos and ancient porcelain," she says.
"I'm delighted and surprised when fragments of these beautiful
images come back to me in my painting."Travel is also a constant
inspiration. Together with her husband, Joe Hearne, who is a member
of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Jan visits many different
countries where she researches the architecture and costumes that
appear in her work. "From cave paintings to Norwegian sleighs, to
Japanese gardens, I study the traditions of the many countries I
visit and use them as a starting point for my children's books."
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