Beatriz Vidal Art

Beatriz Vidal is an internationally known artist and prize-winning illustrator of children’s books. Born in Argentina, she studied painting and design in New York in the 1960s with Hungarian born artist Ilonka Karasz, a former member of the Wiener Werkstatte. During that time, her work included designs for Unicef cards and record covers. Her illustrations also appeared in such magazines as Gourmet, Bon Appetit, The New York Times, Woman's Day and The New Yorker. In 1981, she illustrated the prize-winning book Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema. It became a PBS Reading Rainbow selection and remained a popular feature for more than two decades. In 1988, she illustrated part of the PBS series Joseph Campbell and the Power Of Myth with Bill Moyers. That work resulted in another book commission — Buffalo Dance (Little Brown Co., 1993). Several books followed including Rainbow Crow (Knopf, 1989), also a Reading Rainbow selection on PBS, The Legend of El Dorado (Knopf, 1991), A Promise to the Sun (Little Brown Co.,1992), The Magic Bean Tree, (Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997), A Library for Juana (Knopf, 2002) which won the prestigious "Tomas Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award," Federico and the Magi's Gift (Knopf, 2004) which she wrote and illustrated and A Gift of Gracias, by Julia Alvarez (Knopf, 2005). She illustrated part of Children of God, a storybook Bible retold by Desmond Tutu (published by Lux Verbi, 2010). Beatriz also illustrated Blancaflor by Alma Flor Ada, McGraw-Hill, 2011. More recently, she illustrated Pine and the Winter Sparrow, retold by Alexis York Lumbar, for Wisdom Tales Press (World Wisdom’s children’s books imprint), Gold Medal in the ‘Illustration — Graphics’ category of the 2015 Midwest Book Awards; and Little Lek Longtail Learns to Sleep, also for Wisdom Tales Press. Written by Bette Killion, Little Lek Longtail was an award-winning Finalist in the 2016 USA “Best Book” Awards. From 1985–87, she was invited to teach design and illustration for children's literature of Arab countries in Summer Seminars held in Cyprus and organized by the Beirut University College. She has also taught in New York City at Hunter College, the New School for Social Research, and the 92nd Street Y. In 2007, she was invited by the IBBY (International Board of Books for the Young) to give a workshop on illustration in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to enrich the quality of Mongolian children's literature. Her work has been exhibited in the USA and abroad in both group and solo shows, including the International Exhibition of Illustration for Children in Sarmede, Italy, The Society of Illustrators in New York, the Teacher's College at Columbia University, The Museo Hispanoamericano Isaac Fernandez Blanco in Buenos Aires and the Consulate General of Argentina in New York.