Why Dogs Are illustrator Marita Gentry and author Tana Thompson.
Marita Gentry is a fine artist and illustrator for the Love Unleashed children’s picture book series. Ms. Gentry illustrated the first book Why Dogs Are.
Marita Gentry has been an artist for more than 20 years, creating fine art paintings. Several years ago a teacher friend of hers asked her to help create a mural. Marita did! That mural project catapulted Marita into the realm of artist in residence programs. You know what she learned: teaching art is her gift to share. She loves inspiring students to create. Marita enjoys teaching K-12th grades art.
She is on the Baton Rouge Artist Roster as a professional teaching artist. Since that first mural, about ten more murals have been created in different schools. As Marita continued to create different programs for different schools and ages, she specialized in connecting art to the curriculum. She realized that she had a great connection with children on all levels, especially an artistic level. As time went by, Marita was blessed with the opportunity to illustrate a children’s picture book. Being a children’s book illustrator allows her to take a few words and create the world for a group of characters, thinking beyond the words and adding depth to what the author has put to paper.
“I like to add imagination, beauty, and a spark of humor to all my books so that the reader wants to read the story and look at the pictures one more time. The book, The Cajun Cornbread Boy, did very well. So, other books have followed: Madame Poulet and Monsieur Roach, The Gigantic Sweet Potato, There’s a Dragon in the Library, The Dinosaur Mardi Gras, Beware Beware of the Big Bad Bear, New Orleans Mother Goose and a professional development books for teachers, A is for Alligator, Tell and Draw Tales from A-Z.”
On a fine art level Marita has established a following in southern Louisiana. She paints expressive paintings of the life around her. She uses a variety of mediums to create her paintings. Her paintings reflect her love of color and elements of design. It comes down to a very simple formula: Marita loves to paint and would with or without an audience. Her paintings are available in several galleries. She is thankful for the success she has been blessed with, and the chance to do what she loves. Marita is thankful for all the people who collect her paintings and illustrations. She will continue to paint, illustrate books and most of all stay connected to students by working and creating programs for schools.
You can learn more about Ms. Gentry by visiting her website.