I was an incessant doodler as a child. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, the youngest of 7 children, I was very spunky and tenacious but would never excel at physical activities due to an early onset neuropathy. The visual arts held great appeal to me since grade school. I watched my father who was very skilled at drawing and, at home, would draw a variety of designs for granite & marble memorials during his long engraving career in Portland. So, from watching him, I began to draw. My mother took note when I earned a blue ribbon in grade school for a pencil portrait of my teacher and a purple ribbon in my high school student art show. She signed me up for art classes when I was a teen and from then on, I was hooked. As a teen, I sold my first oil painting at our church art show for $15 – that was a thrill!
As a teen in the 70’s I studied drawing and oil painting with local professional artists at Art Center West in Tigard OR, now long gone. As a working adult, I moonlighted by taking classes at community college and local art schools in life drawing, palette knife oil painting, watercolor, acrylic and basic design. After retirement in 2000, I devoted my time to continued media and color exploration with acrylics, watercolors, and collage. Artists who inspire me are Maxine Masterfield, Pat San Soucie, George James, Judy Hoiness, Robert Burridge, and many, many other great artists locally and nationally.
I convey, through my art, my emotional response to color and design in nature and our world….to celebrate it. I love traditional landscape and still life as well as abstract painting or collage and the process of allowing a work to just evolve not knowing where I’ll end up. Some works on paper find new life and contribute a piece to an abstract collage. Many times, subjects or patterns that have movement inspire me, such as water and swimming fish. Whatever the subject, I strive for rich color. I also am inspired by the dramatic effect of sunlight and shadows as well as reflections in realistic and impressionistic compositions. I like a painting to be an uplifting visual respite from our busy daily lives – to quote Picasso: “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life”. Indeed, it does.October 2007
Associations/Galleries
- Int'l Society of Acrylic Painters
- Watercolor Society of Oregon
- Beaverton Arts Commission
- The Village Gallery of Arts, Portland
- Dancing Coyote Gallery, Depoe Bay
Juried Shows/Awards
- 2008 Watercolor Society of Oregon Spring Show
- 2007 Watercolor Society of Oregon Fall Show - Achievement Award
- 2007 Waterlily Festival Invitational - Hughes Water Gardens
- 2007 Sequim Arts Juried Exhibition, Sequim WA
- 2007 Beaverton Visual Arts Showcase
- 2006 Waterlily Festival Invitational - Hughes Water Gardens
- 2006 Westmoreland Art Nationals Juried Exhibition, Latrobe PA
- May 2006 Village Gallery of Arts - First Place
- 2006 Beaverton Visual Arts Showcase 'People's Choice Award'
- Oct. 2005 Village Gallery of Arts - First Place
- Feb. 2005 Village Gallery of Arts - Hon. Mention
- Aug. 2004 Village Gallery of Arts - Hon. Mention