March highlights
Hello friends!
I hope you are all enjoying the turn of the season. Just when we felt winter was over (early this year for us Torontonians), we get smacked with a huge snowfall and the temperature drops to winter temps again! Just when I started shedding my overcoat! Hopefully that is well behind us now.
School Visits
March was also the month of Ramadan (ends of April 9th) which means I was very busy going to schools doing presentations for Aliya’s Secret, A Story of Ramadan. I visited a few TDSB ( Toronto District Board) and Peel region schools. I read my story to Kindergartners through to grade 4
My presentation involved a slide show of the art from the picture book from sketch to finished art, my process, and much more. The creative writing workshop was crafted for grades 3 and 4. All the grades had an art project that was inspired by Aliya’s Secret- colouring in sheets, “Make a greeting card, illustrate your story based on the age group and grade. It was really fun and gratifying to see the students so excited and productive!
Brainstorming was of demonstrating an act of kindness, inspired from my book.
Big News!
Meena Can’t Wait my second picture book Orca Books came out on March 12th! I am so proud of this book, it’s an intergenerational story about a little girl and her grandmother sharing a Bengali family tradition based on my childhood. I had my book launch at http://queenbooks.ca/ with some of my friends and family cheering me on. It was a lovely morning reading and signing my book.
Painting butterflies and flowers
I created a collection of butterflies for a wall art manufacturing company. I loved the way they turned out! A welcome change from all the other projects I am working on.
Painted in acrylic gouache and watercolours.
Meanwhile working some picture book projects that will be revealed soon! Happy April to you all!