Frané Lessac

Frané Lessac grew up in a small town outside of New York City and had many pets as a child, including; a monkey, snakes and a camel. She spent many weekends in the City browsing through museums and art galleries. At school, the art teacher considered me “unteachable,” yet now her paintings hang in galleries and collections around the world. Because her lines were never straight and her paintings didn't have dimension, teachers told her they were wrong. Her school wasn't progressive enough to recognize primitive painting as a legitimate art form. Frané studied filmmaking at UCLA in California and went on the road to document a rodeo team, a long-distance trucker, and even the birth of a baby. Home was a beach house in Malibu, California, furnished with the discarded furniture of movie stars. She had Flip Wilson’s lawn chairs and Barbra Streisand’s settee. To finance her studies, she worked many jobs including being a projectionist at the California Malibu cinema, fertilising cactus with a silver spoon at a desert nursery and working as a chauffeur in Beverly Hills and where she got her finger stuck in the steering wheel of the car and had to have the fire department help get it out. Frané is on the board of The Literature Centre, has served on the executive committee of the Australian Society of Authors (ASA), was the inaugural West Australian Regional Advisor for Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) for Australia West. She is an Ambassador for both Room to Read and Books in Homes. In 2010, she received the Muriel Barwell Award for Distinguished Service to Children’s Literature. Frané now resides in Fremantle, West Australia and traveling continues to be a major source of inspiration for her work. Her greatest ambition is to instil pride and self-esteem in children about their unique heritage and their own ability to capture it in pictures and words. A selection of her books with Walker Books Australia include Ned Kelly and the Green Sash (WAYRBA Hoffman Award Winner); A Is For Australia (SCBWI Crystal Kite Award Winner); A Is For Australian Animals (Children's Book Council of Australia Notable Book); Under the Southern Cross (Children's Book Council of Australia Notable Book)