About the Artist

I live in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains near Boone, North Carolina with my husband. Since I was a teenager, I've loved going to art museums and reading about artists, past and present. But, I never thought I could paint. Then, a few years after retiring from a large corporation, my husband's aunt, the artist Aldwyth, decided to get rid of her oil paints and focus full-time on making collages and works of assemblage. She was an amazing painter and is a genius with collage and assemblage. She gave me all her tubes of oil paints and encouraged me to try my hand at oil painting. I began to take workshops and classes and, nearly ten years later, I am still learning how to paint and loving it! And, I still have a few of those tubes she gave me.

Landscapes and still lifes, especially flowers, are my primary subjects. I love vivid colors and subjects that have personal meaning, like the japanese maple in my front yard, with its bright yellow green leaves in the late Spring, flowers like the ones my grandmother planted along her sidewalk, the "Down to Earth" pottery vase made by my mother's cousin, and the copper-colored lusterware collection from my husband's grandmother.

I dedicate my time painting to celebrate being here, now, in spite of pockets of darkness that loom over us these days, and to honor my connections with people past and present.  

Exhibitions:

July 2023: High Country Watermedia Society Exhibition at the Jones House Cultural Center in Boone, NC; "Honorable Mention" received for Misty Morning Palmetto gouache painting.

January, 2024: "Favorite Places" exhibition at the Ashe County Arts Council in West Jefferson, NC

July 2024: High County Watermedia Society Exhibition at the Jones House Cultural Center in Boone, NC; "Honorable Mention" received for two gouache paintings, "Spring on Rich Mountain #2," and "Spring on Rich Mountain #3."

September 2024: "Color My World" exhibition at the Florence Thomas Art School in West Jefferson, NC for the High Country Watermedia Society

October, 2024: "The Best of the Blue Ridge" exhibition at the Ashe County Arts Council in West Jefferson, NC; juried show

July 2025: High Country Watermedia Society Exhibition at the Jones House Cultural Center in Boone, NC

July 2026: High Country Watermedia Society Exhibition at the Jones House Cultural Center in Boone, NC; watercolor "Roan Mountain Vista" received an "Honorable Mention" in this juried exhibition.