Crystal Beshara

About Author & Illustrator Crystal Beshara.

Crystal is an award-winning Canadian artist whose artwork is collected around the world. She began drawing steadily as a little girl and knew she wanted to be a professional artist as early as kindergarten. She grew up on a small hobby farm in Eastern Ontario where her creativity & imagination bloomed into a full time career.

As a young girl, Crystal was always drawing! She drew whimsical farm scenes and countless images of horses. Both of her parents were very creative and along with her school teachers, encouraged her talents, supplying her with endless amounts of paper and drawing tools. She recalls recesses where kids were lined up with their blank notebooks, waiting for their coloured pencil drawing of a pegasus or unicorn to adorn their covers. Crystal also developed an early passion for reading. Books like Charlotte's Web, The Chronicles of Narnia, Incident at Hawk's Hill and anything be Farley Mowat or James Herriot infused in her an interest in writing and in grade 6 she had her first local story published "The unhappy Queen". The cover of which still hangs framed in the library of her elementary school.

Crystal went on to graduate from the University of Ottawa in 1996 and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio as well as a diploma in Botanical Illustration from the UK. Be it a doe-eyed cow, a feathered friend or a charming old barn, Crystal has spent most of her career painting rural life in Canada as a means to document and preserve its rich agricultural history. She has illustrated several children's books. 'When I Visit the Farm' was her first written book inspired by her own childhood and daughter interactions on a farm. Crystal is also an international arts educator and has been teaching art classes for over 20 years.

Her studio is situated in Prescott and Russell Ontario not farm from her childhood home, where she lives with her husband and furry friends.