Jerry Pinkney

Jerry Pinkney (born 1939) is a master watercolorist and one of the most beloved artists in children’s literature. He has built a career creating paintings about legendary people and characters whose lives exemplify a journey of moral character and freedom of spirit. Pinkney was born and raised in the Germantown section of Philadelphia and studied at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art (now the University of the Arts). He has illustrated more than one hundred books and received many awards, among them the Caldecott Medal, five Caldecott Honor Medals, five Coretta Scott King Awards. He has been honored by the Society of Illustrators with a Lifetime Achievement Award and, in 2012, was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.