Art is my passion…

When I committed to begin my career as an artist, I began studying with several accomplished artists.

After practicing with watercolor and acrylics on varied surfaces, my instructors encouraged me to enter juried shows and competitions. To my surprise, I began to win.

My two favorite subjects are Chickens and Cactus…

Growing up we had chickens! The joy they had brought to me on a daily basis was never ending. I will always picture my chickens running out of the tall grass when I called them–I am convinced that they are smarter than most give them credit for. Later in my life I started to draw them as cartoons; while I am working on a painting of Penelope or the Chick Detective, I can’t help but smile.

At first, I wasn’t such a big cactus fan–I grew up near the coast of California. But that changed when I moved to Arizona in 2005. I lived in the Sonoran Desert and was inundated with cactus! I began to appreciate the beauty of the vivid colors of cactus flowers glowing with the sun. I painted cactus after cactus in a watercolor class until my own style emerged. My daily walks resulted in many cactus paintings and many pleasurable memories.

My wish today is to bring joy, laughter and happiness to all who see my art.

WATERCOLOR ON BLACK

I love painting vibrant, colorful watercolors on black paper! This process began while I was in my first watercolor class at the recreation center of Tucson, Arizona. Picking up my first watercolor brush, I asked Sherry, the instructor to show me how to hold my brush. She came over to my seat and began to lean over my shoulder in the way a primary school teacher helps a child, just beginning to write. Holding my hand with the brush she started moving it with the paint.

This simple method of holding a brush was just like holding a chopstick! That familiarity really helped–assuring me an end result of beautiful loose watercolor painting.

After class my homework was to go home and practice. And so, I began putting the brush into paint and onto the paper, over and over. Many hours and days passed while I practiced. I then grabbed a piece of black paper. To my amazement I could not believe how beautiful the results were. When I started using black paper with watercolor and infused metal paint, my work really started to pop!