Eugenie Fernandes - Author/Illustrator

My world is yellow and blue and green. I grew up on the beach. I painted with my father --- comic-book illustrator Creig Flessel. We made up stories sitting on the front porch. Birds flew down from the sky and sat on my shoulder. Cats purred. Frogs hopped. I have always lived on islands ...a house on Long Island, an apartment on Manhattan Island, a thatch hut on an island in the middle of the South Pacific, and now ... I live and work in a little house ... on a little island ... in a little lake in southern Ontario. Summer and winter ...starting at the crack of dawn, I paint every day. Sometimes, I write stories. Sometimes, I sell the stories. Then I paint again ... I paint my stories ... I paint other people's stories. Sometimes, I paint paintings for myself ... abstract paintings ... big ... free ... Sunshine fills my studio.I am surrounded by water and birds and trees.My world is yellow and blue and green. Eugenie graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1965. Her paintings from Earth Magic and One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference are at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art.