What draws me to a painting? It's a bit of color, a strong design, something I may see just out of the corner of my eye as I pass. It is something that requires a second look. I'm usually pulled to the small overlooked corners rather than the grand vistas. I like to paint the beauty in the ordinary things, things we often take for granted.

I was taught to go to the source, ie; nature or life to learn color and subtle temperature transitions from Sergei Bongart. I became addicted. Painting on location, or plein air painting, feeds my soul. It is for me and me alone, while I am there in that moment. It's a time of being so united with nature, even years later, a small study will conjure up the smell and sounds of that day in my mind. I discovered later that what I paint is the light and the design. It is the puzzle I need to keep solving.

I teach students to paint by teaching them to see. When I finally learned to SEE myself it was a great epiphany. One day while eating breakfast, I was attracted to the way the light hit the objects I'd left on the counter. I wondered if I could paint them before my husband awakened to eat them? All of a sudden I was painting so fast that all the objects just became form and color and temperature. What I had heard all those years, I had not been translating into action until that moment. I got it, really got it, in that one moment I was finally painting!

I learned to draw the figure when I was a child. People were fascinating to me and when we traveled I drew. I never thought I would ever want to paint anything but the figure and the relationships between people. It still has strong pull for me. I look for the gestures of a person, no matter what age group. The gesture you develop as a child you carry with you throughout your life. If I can capture that in a painting that person remains ageless. I also study the relationships between the subjects, especially in a family. That is a dynamic that doesn't seem to change a lot either. But in the end, it still all comes down to solving the puzzle.

Painting en plein air fills my life with a sense of discovery. I miss it when not painting and I can't imagine ever living without it or something creative in my life. It is an addiction. It is pain and true joy. There is nothing like that "AH HA" moment when everything just falls into place and you feel like you've got it, the puzzle is solved and life is good!

Curriculum Vitae