Color and Light.
Staring at objects until they became prisms of color and light was a favorite pastime of mine as a child. If I stared long enough, trees broke into cool greens and hot yellows, and flowers became vibrant shapes. It provided hours of fascination, and, unbeknownst to me, began the development of a painter’s eye for shape and color.
Later, I was introduced to the paintings of the Old Masters. Drawn to their timeless beauty, I suddenly realized I was born for this. If there was such a thing as earning a living through painting, it was for me. The seeds of a dream were planted.
Our local art center nurtured these seeds through fun and practical classes, and teachers at school provided the next steps. In time, the dream became my pathway. When I graduated high school and left for college, the pursuit of this pathway became my passion.
While a freshman at the University of Arkansas, I was introduced to oil painting in the studio and fell in love with everything about it as an artistic medium. I loved oil paint’s creamy consistency. I loved the fact that oils dried so slowly that they remained malleable and forgiving when my brushstrokes needed adjustment. Oils could capture the beauty and poignancy in the world around me while leaving me time to reflect, revise, and perfect my work.
With a B.S. in Art Education from the University of Missouri-Columbia, I taught art in Kansas City and Joplin, Mo., until taking time out to raise my children.
In 1998, it was time to pick up my paintbrush again. Studying with nationally recognized artist Jeff Legg reawakened my love for oil painting and sharpened my focus. Representational still life, plein air landscaping, figurative painting, and portraiture have now become my favorites. Margaret Carter Baumgartner’s portrait workshop gave me the keys to painting portraits from life studies instead of photographs.
Today, my greatest pleasures are simple. Sharing my art in galleries, painting commissioned works, and winning merit awards is satisfying, but to be at my easel with a palette full of rainbow colors is pure happiness.
It is my dream that this happiness, drawn from color and light, touches and lifts the soul of each and every viewer of my works.