Jamieson Pat

Article by Erika Glassberg
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December 6, 2011

In the picture, Gail Stephenson (left) and Pat Jamieson recently collaborated to create an interactive children's book with colourful hand-painted images titled "The Raindrop That Wanted to Be a River." The book has become widely popular among the residents of South Stormont since its release only a few weeks ago.

When Pat Jamieson was younger, she knew she would be a successful author but she had no idea that her success would be reached much later in life and with the help of a local artist. After a few big events in her life including triple bypass surgery, Jamieson decided to get back to her childhood dream of writing. "I thought I'd be a great writer but life intervenes," she said. "(Writing a book) was one of the things on my bucket list.''

A few years back, Jamieson decided to write a few children's books in her spare time for her grandchildren but hadn't published them or found any imagery to go with her words. Finally, she thought she would try and have her book "The Raindrop That Wanted to be a River" published but she needed to find someone to do the accompanying illustrations.

When some of Jamieson's friends recommended the work of Gail Stephenson, a local artist, she decided to give her call. "We were almost strangers. It's great to find a friend, a real friend, who helps me to get creative (by creating her paintings and giving her opinions)," Jamieson said.

Stephenson is an experienced painter with over 30 year's experience. She had always loved painting landscapes and historic buildings but she had never painted for a children's book before. "At first I thought 'oh my, no' but then I thought why not at least try?'' Stephen son said.

After, the couple met a few times to discuss what and how the images should be done up, it was up to Stephenson to use her talent to paint the beautiful images which would later turn out better than she had expected.

"I was quite slow getting into it,'' she said."But once we got to the printer and knew the size of the pages, I was ready to go. I liked it because I like doing trees, water, animals."

The book is about a raindrop's journey to become a river. Along the way, the raindrop meets with many different animals and learns a little bit about himself and his role in becoming something bigger.

The interactive book is geared towards the toddler age group and has so far been a great success in the South Stormont area. In only a few weeks, the duo managed to sell every copy of their published book at arts and crafts shows and have ordered another 'batch to keep up with the high demand. They have also begun selling framed images from the book, which can be used to beautify any nursery or children's room.

The books can be ordered through e-mail by contacting pjamieson9@cogeco.ca or cgail@bellnet.ca or by phone at 613-534-8480.