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Featured Book of the Month
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Why write a story about the beach? Click here to find out!
Easy Reading chapter book
Janey Olsen, Famous Artist of the Beach
Janey Olsen was finally on the beach at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina! She could hardly wait to draw what she saw all around her. Her dream to be a real artist was coming true! Nothing could stop her now from becoming famous—
or could it?
With her beautiful drawings and watercolors, Ms. Holly brings Janey’s creative family, relatives and friends to life in her lively beach story from the Outer Banks of North Carolina! Enjoy the amazing artwork of 9 year old Grace Baity, along with other students of the Joy of Drawing Classes.
As a special feature, it includes a step-by-step lesson on how to draw a lighthouse with watercolor pencils.
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Books for Children
Click on book covers for more details & sample pages
“Children are the living messages we send
to a time we will not see.”
– John W Whitehead.
About the Author
Hello and welcome to my website!
I am so glad you came for a visit – a little about me.
I was born near the Pacific Ocean in California and raised in the state of Kansas. I grew up in a home filled with composers, singers, authors, artists, children’s books and family stories. So naturally, I followed my love of creating and decided to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Kansas State University.
After graduation, I worked in Kansas City for The Squire publications in the art department, in a graphic studio and at a Hallmark Card shop. I also took 12 sessions from a famous portrait painter at the time, Harry Fredman. Then I traveled with a children’s music and puppet ministry as a puppeteer, and sang alto in the group. We toured the north and eastern United States. When I went back home to Manhattan, Kansas, married Rob Friesen and completed a degree in Elementary Education.
Read My Art Journey
While raising my three daughters, I was invited to teach art to my friend’s children. As a result, I created the curriculum for the class: The Joy of Drawing, from Real Life and Pictures, as a private drawing and painting instructor. So far, I am still teaching today.
Later on, I was invited to join The Watercolor Group at the community art center where I learned from some of the best watercolor masters in the country: Feeling Lin, Tom Linch and many others. I have developed a unique style of using watercolor pencils and watercolor paints that produce lovely cards, prints and exhibition pieces inspired by nature, places, people, and interpretations of the beautiful life around me.
Today, I live in my art house in “The Little Apple,” Manhattan, KS with my husband and a Russian Blue shorthair cat named Prussia. I enjoy baking fruit muffins to give away, trips to beautiful places and the creative expressions from my art students, my own children and grandchildren.
About Storybook Publishing
Rob and Holly started Storybook Publishing so they could publish faster without submitting their work to large publishers who often receive up to 80,000 manuscripts a year. They were counselled by friends in the industry that self-publishing was the best way to accomplish their dreams.
Currently they are publishing their own work but if you have questions about the publishing process or about how to publish your work, contact the business office email: robfriesen@sbcglobal.net.
About the Logo
The logo was drawn in pencil from a photograph of Holly’s mother, a creative artist and story teller, who inspired her children by reading good books to them each night.
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