Lynn Coffin: Painter, author, illustrator, mother wife, community activist

Painter, author, illustrator, mother, wife, community activist — Longboater Lynn Armstrong Coffin identifies with all of those titles.

Her latest endeavor since her son, Mikael, was born in 1983, is writing and illustrating children’s books. Coffin first fell in love with the drawings in children’s books while picking them out in the store and reading them to Mikael every night before bed.

“When my son was born, I found that I always picked out his books based on illustrations,” Coffin said. “Then I started thinking that that was something I’d really like to do. I’ve been illustrating for more than 30 years and love telling a story with pictures rather than text.”

She drew on her own life experiences as inspiration for her first six books, and now her love of children and creating something for them has helped her in publishing four new children’s books.

She authors and illustrates all of her own books, and her newest additions are: “Idioms on the Loose”; “Have You Met the Alphabet?”; Count with Me One, Two, Three”; and “Out to Walk.” All four books are available on Amazon.com and will be soon available in local bookstores, such as Circle Books, on St. Armands Circle, and Bookstore 1, on Main Street in Sarasota.

Coffin has worked in various aspects of publishing, from publishing her own stories to learning how to make all of her images on the computer, rather than sketching them freehand.