I am a self-taught artist and have been painting for more than 30 years. I grew up in logging camps and this environment constantly exposed me to nature. This kindled my interest in landscapes, animals, florals and still life. I began by drawing on anything I could find and when finances allowed, I moved on to cheap watercolors and then finally to oil, acrylics and gouache.

One of my biggest influences in art came in the 80s when I was introduced to the teachings of Betty Edwards with the book “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”. The book taught me how to look at subjects for a different perspective and enabled me to improve my drawing and painting abilities.

My style is realism and impressionism. I paint mainly in oils and paint subjects that interest and excite me and also subjects that the viewer can relate to, whether it be a landscape, floral arrangement, still life or portrait.

I was raised in Lewis County, Washington and spent most of my life farming (Christmas Trees).

I have always been an artist. I have an emotional connection with my art, that feeling of exhilaration (or love) when an art piece magically culminates into a finished work. I started painting as a teenager, selling my work for pocket change. Then I had two careers and raised a family, hardly painting at all. Now, retired (mostly) I am painting again and loving it!! I will try any medium and most styles. My favorite right now is watercolor.

Also I am really enjoying Pounded Flowers!

My artistic journey has led me from oils to pastels to acrylics to watercolor and back to oils again. In addition, I have painted portraits, still life, landscapes and now I am fascinated by abstract. Currently my personal artistic expression is freed from all adherence to form, allowing me to totally engage with my inner self and grant my creativity permission to flow into my work.

Painting abstracts in oil with cold wax medium is a great revelation to me as it seemed to open me up to possibilities that were not there before. The effects and textures possible are endless. The mystery of this mixture of oil paint with cold wax medium is that it starts out soft and buttery and dries to a smooth satin sheen, leaving the viewer with few clues to how effects were achieved.

The excitement of walking into my creative space, putting my thoughts and feelings onto a canvas is like putting a handful of Pop Rocks into my mouth. The pops are energizing, awakening and some downright hurt.

I use many mediums to get to the image before you. Bursts of color that excite the soul and welcome you to peek into what was once my past and the blinding light of my future. I know not, what will emerge out of my inner feelings, onto the canvas until it is ready to go on the journey with the quiet and sometimes wild artist that exists in me.

Everyone is an artist, no matter the form it may take. Over my lifetime, I have been involved in music, theatre arts, visual arts and writing. This has taken place through degree work, participation, teaching and self-actual application.

I taught students who became joyous at their personal discoveries of talent and on-going success that was so their own. Time is a measurement for the creativity of human beings expressed through art forms. From human chaos and disaster, the arts arise and heal.

For me this exposure has been the stage of theatre and musical performance, the pages of books, the walls of galleries and museums, and my own classroom. A culture/society without this exposure is doomed to the mundane of a laborious existence without exposing the recognition of all beauty.

Art is to be shared. My own paintings have accomplished this belief by joining other artists in sharing shows and gallery space, encouraging people of all ages, and being happy to share with family and friends

Art is a savior of mind, spirit and inner being.