From my earliest memory, I have connected to the emotive and sensual qualities of paint. When I painted my first self-portrait, the background sky ran down my face and I was inconsolable. In the midst of my tears, my Kindergarten teacher showed me how to handle neighboring wet paint. Then she asked me why I hadn’t just painted a ribbon of blue at the top, like most children do. “Because,” I said, “the sky is blue all the way down to the ground.” “Yes,” she answered, “but most six-year-olds don’t see that.” As a college art major, I was shown how complementary colors could tone down too-vivid hues, obtain contrast, and make warm blacks. Forty years later, I still don’t use black out of the tube and I still learn something new every time I paint.

For over twenty years now, I have specialized in painting ‘En Plein Air,’ carrying my equipment into open spaces – through the canyons of New Mexico, up and down the hill towns of Italy and Portugal, and into New England, West Coast, and Mexican conservation lands and coastal areas. I search for moments in time and place that elicit feelings I can capture in paint, often through contrasts in elements. By capturing these opposing elements in my art, I hope to evoke a sense of the mysteries and truths of life. At the very least, I hope to share my awe of, and appreciation for, the natural world in which we are all rooted, the fervent hope of every Plein Air painter.