Born in Rochester, New York in 1943, Victoria self-publisher Helen Stewart lives and works in a grand old house originally built by an indulgent father solely to provide his daughters with a suitable venue for parties. In the ballroom-turned-studio Stewart, an artist and printmaker, produced the handworked, handprinted copper plates for the illustrations gracing A Child's Enchanted Garden (Tudor House Press/Sandhill $19.95). Applying coloured inks to specific areas of multiple plates in the traditional printmaking process known as intaglio, Stewart created richly textured images to accompany the gentle tale of Betsy as she experiences the changing seasons in Grandfather's garden. Stewart's other old-fashioned stories for children include Christmas Snowflake and The Porcelain Doll. Under the name H.E. Stewart she produced her first adult title, Berkeley to the Barnyard: A Far Cry from Home (Tudor House Press, 2004), in which recalls her move from California in 1965 to live in a sheep farm in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia. She spent 15 years living on the farm, raising five children while her husband was frequently in Calgary at the university. The closest town was McBride, one of the last communities in Canada to receive television signals. In 2002, she explained her decision to publish under her initials: "You sell more books if people don't know you're a woman."

[BCBW 2003] "Kidlit" "Art"