Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators

Jessie Beatty is an illustrator working and living in Grove City, Pennsylvania. She graduated from PennWest Edinboro University in May of 2025, where she studied dual concentrations in illustration and painting. While there, she created her senior capstone project and first self-published book, Tilly’s Cloudy Day, which is a traditionally watercolored children's book inspired by her corgi, Tilly. This picture book has limited words to encourage a conversation between the child and adult and to develop comprehension skills at a young age. The simple story and limited color palette are meant to oppose the flood of overstimulating art and colors currently in the market of children's literature and television.

While watercolor illustrations are her main interest, she also studied oil painting while attending Edinboro. Throughout her time in school and after graduation, she has shown her oil paintings in galleries, such as The Bruce Gallery, The Hoyt Art Center, The Erie Art Museum, and in a couple upcoming shows at The Manos Gallery.

Near the end of 2025, Jessie had the opportunity to work with a local Grove City author, Taylor O’Neil, to illustrate her children’s book, Chili’s Misadventure. Recently, Jessie has begun writing and illustrating a second children’s book of her own. This story, set in the 1950s, follows a mailman duck named Algernon, whose new coworker is a robot-duck that is faster at delivering mail.