Contact Information

First Name

Layne

Last Name

Johnson

City

Houston

State

TX

Country

United States

web address

http://www.laynejohnson.com

type of art work

Historical, Colonial, Wild West, Non-fiction, American revolution, Horses, Fiction, oil painting, realistic, impressionistic, animals, people, painterly, ethereal

Published Works

Race the Wild Wind: A Story of the Sable Island Horses (Walker Books for Young Readers, 2011), Christmas Kitten, Home at Last (Albert Whitman & Co., 2010), The Declaration of Independence from A to Z (Pelican Publishing, 2010), Off Like the Wind, The First Ride of the Pony Express (Walker Books for Young Readers, 2010), Damon, Pythias, and the Test of Friendship (Albert Whitman & Co., 2009), Farmer George Plants a Nation (Boyds Mills Press, 2008), Remembering Grandpa (Boyds Mills Press), A Young Man's Dance (Boyds Mills Press), The Kingfisher Book of Horse and Pony Stories (Houghton Mifflin / Kingfisher, 2005 — anthology, illustrated selected stories), Young Patriots: Inspiring Stories of the American Revolution (Boyds Mills Press), Grandparent Poems (Boyds Mills Press), Where Horses Run Free (Boyds Mills Press), Christmas for Kitten (Albert Whitman & Co.), Ben, King of the River (Albert Whitman & Co.), On the Day His Daddy Left (Albert Whitman & Co.), Brian's Bird (Albert Whitman & Co.), The Night Queen's Blue Velvet Dress (Steck-Vaughn), Abuelito Eats With His Fingers (Eakin Press), Brad and Butter Play Ball (Random House)

Bio

I'm Layne Johnson and I've always loved adventure! And that's exactly what each new book is. A native Texan, I've drawn and painted just about everything! Being a children's book illustrator is also an adventure. I often ask kids if they know what an illustrator does. A kindergartener might say, "You write the pictures in books!" A third grader might say, "You draw the pictures in books!" But I say, "I bring books to life!" I don't draw or paint just what the words say. I draw what comes before the words, what's between the words, what comes after the words. It's my job to make the world of a book larger. I want the reader to "be there" in the book. And when they've taken the journey with me, to say, "Let's read it again!"

Why do I do what I do? Because it's FUN! I'm still a kid at heart, so illustrating books for kids is my passion. And empowering children to draw and write is something I cherish — what could be better?!

I earned my BFA from the University of Houston and have been a freelance illustrator for more than 25 years.