Lorna Bennett attended the Fine Arts/Arts programs at Grant MacEwan College and The University of Alberta. After working full time as a designer/illustrator for many years, Lorna became a full-time freelance illustrator in 1998 and began to illustrate trade picture books, greeting cards, novel covers, as well as nonfiction, technical illustration, other language books, and cookbooks. Lorna has worked as a writer and as an animator in traditional and digital animation with an Edmonton multimedia group; projects include work for the National Film Board and Royal Provincial Museum’s Wild Alberta permanent exhibit multimedia. Lorna has held solo exhibitions of original oil paintings at the Art Gallery of Alberta (formerly the Edmonton Art Gallery), the Royal Alberta Museum, and major libraries in Edmonton and Calgary.
Since 2001 Lorna has traveled in Canada giving illustrator presentations.
For schools/students who want to know a little more about Lorna
Favorite foods:
Sushi, Thai salads (but not chicken feet!)
Favorite animals to draw:
anteaters, armadillos, bears, bugs, bunnies, cats, dogs, gorillas, hamsters, horses, mice, monkeys, moose, squirrels, the list might be endless….
I really want to travel to:
Italy, Scotland, Alaska, Patagonia, Tibet, Nepal, Africa; then Japan and New York again!
Some of my favorite children’s book illustrators:
Marie-Louise Gay
Chris Van Allsburg
Brian Karas
Gary Kelly
Jon Muth
Shaun Tan
Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher
Mary Grandpre
Babette Cole
David Johnson
Lane Smith
C. F. Payne
Lisbeth Zwerger
Barry Moser
Dr. Suess
Stephane Jorisch
Oliver Jeffers
Favorite children’s book:
Saving Sweetness (and Raising Sweetness ), illustrated by Brian Karas
Favorite novels:
Who Has Seen the Wind and
To Kill a Mockingbird
Some places I have traveled to:
Japan, China, Korea, Hawaii, Baja Mexico, Oregon Dunes, Grande Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, Arches National Park, New York, Nova Scotia, and all over Alberta, Saskatchewan & British Columbia
Favorite musical instrument to listen to:
cello
Favorite musical instrument to play:
guitar, flute, piano, drums
Favorite colors:
green
periwinkle mauve
robin’s egg blue
A few more things:
I love to travel down a highway I’ve never been on before.
I recycle every possible thing I can.
I love watching the sun going down over the wide, rolling prairie on a clear night.