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Author and illustrator Doris Anne Holman uses her talents to help students create and learn about nature.
By MICHELE MILLER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 27, 2002
NEW PORT RICHEY -- When it comes to painting a Great Blue Heron, it seems the bird's beak can be the hardest part. Just ask Brian Mavoisin, a fifth-grader from Cypress Elementary School.
Last week the young artist was well on his way to completing his painting of Harry the Great Blue Heron during an hourlong watercolor workshop led by children's author and illustrator, Doris Anne Holman.
Brian managed well penciling in the bird's outline and painting the blue and violet "curly-cue" feathers. Using a plant printing technique -- painting the leaves from geranium and Dusty Miller plants before pressing them on paper -- Brian did a fine job creating a plush native landscape. He even got the dark blue zig-zag thing right, giving his pond a rippling effect.
Now in the home stretch, Brian gingerly dipped his brush in a little puddle of orange and went to it.
"Oh, oh, I made a mistake," he said, reaching for a small sponge and shaking his head at the orange blob.
Not a problem -- that's the beauty of using watercolors. Just use that sponge to sop it up, blend it in and give it another shot.
Through characters she has created in her books such as Edie the Egret, Mandy and Sally Manatee and Harry the Great Blue Heron, Doris Holman gives youngsters like Brian painting instruction as well as some insight about the habits of native Florida wildlife.
"It's wonderful," Cypress art teacher Joy Reynolds said of the "wet on wet" watercolor technique her students were learning. "The technique is really free-flowing which is important. When they make a mistake they can just blend it into the background. They can work with it."
A retired teacher and true snowbird who splits her year between homes here and in Harpeswell, Maine, Ms. Holman says she's eager to continue educating the young -- especially those new transplants who aren't so familiar with their new surroundings in Florida.
Her self-published books are sold in small shops in the Harpeswell area, but here in Florida, she reaches the young mostly through her presentations in the schools.
Ms. Holman has conducted workshops at schools throughout east and central Pasco. She also has donated her time working with pediatric patients at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa.
And while she has spent some time taking in the ample birding opportunities at one of her favorite spots, Green Key Beach in New Port Richey, Cypress Elementary is the first western Pasco school she has visited. She was invited to the school by Media Specialist Julia Gay, who had heard good things about the author's workshop.
At Cypress, Ms. Holman put on a slide presentation for all students, a painting workshop for a select group and enjoyed a special luncheon with those who had read and been tested on all 15 of the Sunshine State reading books.
"I missed the kids terribly when I retired," said Ms. Holman, "So this is wonderful."
Then there is her growing concern for the environment.
"I got to worrying about the habitat loss," she said, adding that the ideas to write conservation-type books came after noting the absence of native birds and wildlife when the pond in her Zephyrhills neighborhood went dry.
The pond has come back and through donations many folks in her neighborhood have taken to re-stocking. Still, it will be a while before the fish are big enough for the predator birds to eat, says Ms. Holman.
"We have the herons back and the egrets are back on the shore," she said. "Within a month or so the eagles should be able to feed again. Right now the fish are just too small for their talons to grab them up."
It is those kind of observations that help create the plots for her books, all of which end with a colorful sunset.
Harry the Great Blue Heron is a love story of sorts, said Ms. Holman, adding that she wrote the book after watching the bird's mating dance. "They do all this bowing and strutting," she said, "It's really something."
"I think they're some of the best books I've ever read," said Kyle Cady. The third-grader said his favorite read was "the one about Sally the Manatee" who gets separated from her mother after the pair are struck by a boat.
"They're good; they have good pictures," said second-grader, Melody Boudrea, who along with fifth-grader Victoria Pioszak was putting to good use some of the new painting "tricks of the trade" she was learning.
"It's pretty cool because I'm allowed to make a mess,' Victoria said. "And you don't get in trouble for it."
-- NOTE: For more information on Ms. Holman's presentations call (813) 779-8803