I have enjoyed a 30 year career as an professional artist and art teacher. My degree is in painting and drawing, but my teaching assignments exposed myself and my students to wide varieties of media: clay, batik, paper making, mosaics and of course painting and drawing. I enjoy the tactile qualities of fine crafts, but I always go back to color. I found that I can have deep texture as well as brilliant colors in oil painting.

So many artists have touched me, past and present, but I have always been drawn to the French Impressionists, with their emphasis on the effects of light and shadow on color. I have benefited from studying with artists practicing the techniques of the Russian Impressionists. Color can be seductive, I force myself to see and express form, always experimenting with “what can be left out”.

I love a variety of subjects, from still-life, to landscapes, to portraits. I’m fond of painting old buildings, gas stations, and Texas landscapes. I enjoy listening to patron’s stories of “the good old days”, of a simpler life, where the car was king, and road trips produced family memories. I spend a lot of time painting plein aire, because I like to be forced to make quick decisions, before the light and color changes. I was told that all the information one needs can be painted in 90 minutes, so now I try to show light patterns, color and shadows in 90 minutes, and make the final tweaks in my studio.

Portraits have always been a passion for me. Extremely challenging, but so rewarding when I can create the essence of the model with economy of brushstroke. My goals are to have loose but purposeful brushstrokes, allowing undefined spaces to be filled by the observer. I hope to capture the essence of the model without showing all the details.

I am always the student, I am always wanting to learn, to experience, having yet to attain the goal, but I continue to press on. I am thankful to God for this gift, my family for support, and my fellow artists for encouragement and constructive criticism.