About the Artist

I have always been an artist, even when I wasn't.  The smell and feel of Crayola crayons was intoxicating to my preschool mind.  Tempera paint loaded on a brush could work magic in the middle grades.  Winning book fair poster contests in junior high, departmental honors in art in high school, and then majoring in studio art (oils) and education in college (Knox College, 1975, Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa) cemented the relationship. 

Life intervened...grad school in a non-art field  (Diagnosis and Remediation of Reading Difficulties), jobs (teaching, sometimes art), and real estate, kids, pets...less and less time to paint.  Then I took a class in watercolor, a medium not taught in college programs.  I loved the way light could be expressed by letting the white of the paper show through, utilizing the translucence of the paint.  From there I moved to painting with colored pencil.  The white of the paper and the translucence of the pigments worked the same as with watercolor, but my portraits could express more of the personality of the individual through an increase in control of detail.  Plus, colored pencils reminded me of those good old kindergarten crayons as the brand I used were wax based!  I'd found my favorite medium.

My work consists primarily of portraits (human and animal), florals, and landscapes featuring water, rocks and trees.  I prefer to paint subjects that are in strong light and shadow as the contrast appeals to me.  I accept commissions, although much of my work is produced for the joy of it!