The artist filled a children’s book with pictures inspired by Bainbridge settings.

A children’s book that emerged as a local best seller this holiday season is so full of illustrations of island people and places, it probably could have been called “B is for Bainbridge” – if only Bigfoot hadn’t nabbed the letter B slot.

And yet even Bigfoot was drawn with an island influence. Bainbridge artist Linda Holt Ayriss, the book’s illustrator, used islander Alex Powers as the model for the mythic beast, because she liked his flowing hair.

“This book could not have come together without my friends from Bainbridge,” said Ayriss, whose north-end studio looks out on tall cedars and thick foliage that inspired the cover painting for “E is for Evergreen: A Washington Alphabet.”

The pictorial book, written by Oregon authors Marie and Roland Smith, is one in a series that takes readers through the history and landmarks of the nation’s 52 states, offering a simple rhyme for younger children and a more detailed history lesson for older children.

For each edition, the publisher seeks out a local artist whose work captures the natural beauty and uniqueness of the place.

For the state of Washington, Ayriss fit the bill.

“The things around me are my inspiration, and sooner or later, everyone I know ends up in an illustration,” said Ayriss, who has lived on the island since 1990 with her husband David and daughter Erin.

“E is for Evergreen” offers page after page of Ayriss’ acrylics and colored pencil drawings as examples.

Under the “A is for Apple” entry, the blonde child reaching up to pick fruit is Halle McPherson, the daughter of a friend in Ayriss’ knitting group.

“K is for Kites” features neighbor Holly Bice, age 3, amid a flutter of kites at the International Kite Festival at Long Beach.

That’s Ayriss’ brother panning for gold on the “N is for Nugget” page, and her 94-year-old aunt posing as “M is for Mary Joseph,” who founded a mission to serve the poor.

The steed under “H is for Horses” is Ayriss’ very own, as are the ponds, streams, flowers and trees that appear throughout the work.

Finding models for the book was easy until she got to “U is for U.S. Navy.” Ayriss tried to take a digital camera into the Navy facilities at Bangor and Bremerton, but was denied access for security reasons.

What she wanted was to depict a Navy officer in uniform, and she was looking for a living, breathing example.

One day she mentioned this while shopping at Eagle Harbor Book Co., and was led to a member of the staff, Alisson Kolodner, whose husband Michael is a Navy man.

With a little coaxing from his wife, Michael Kolodner, an officer on the ship Henry M. Jackson, came to Ayriss’ house dressed in his Navy blues to have his picture taken, and his image appears in the book, standing tall next to a U.S. flag.

“It’s great – it looks exactly like him,” said Alisson, who noted that the book made an ideal Christmas present for family members. “It’s got wonderful illustrations, and it’s a good ABC book as well as a history book, a book that children can grow with and that adults can enjoy as well.”

“E is for Evergreen” is one of several books that Ayriss has illustrated, although she primarily works as a commercial artist, whose clients have commissioned her to depict ripe apples and tomatoes and bucolic scenes for Northwest wine labels.

Her renditions of plants regularly grace the pages of Sunset magazine, and her client list includes Nintendo, Chateau St. Michelle, Alaska Airlines and the Woodland Park Zoo.

“I drew all my life. From the time I was 12 I knew I wanted to be an illustrator,” said Ayriss, whose favorite artists include Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Dr. Seuss and Norman Rockwell. “The neat thing about being an illustrator, is that you are always learning about different things.”

Indeed, she learned a lot about the state of Washington from the eclectic entries in “E is for Evergreen,” which she worked on seven days a week for seven months.

“I have gotten really good input from educators,” particularly teachers in the primary grades, who have bought it to read to their students, she said.

Through the mentoring program at Eagle Harbor High School, Ayriss also works with island teens who have artistic aspirations. They have a table next to hers in the studio overlooking the gardens and woods, where they have the luxury of spending weeks on a single project.

Ayriss grew up in Seattle and became a professional artist in 1983, after graduating from the Art Center College in Pasadena and earning a BFA from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma.

She is the recipient of a silver medal from the Best in the West Society of Illustrators and has been recognized in the “Communications Arts” Annual.

Now that “E is for Evergreen” is finished, Ayriss is working on several portraits, including one of her daughter depicted as a fanciful wood nymph, once again, a work inspired by people and things close to heart and home.

“All of my work deals with living, growing things,” she said.