I grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and started college as an art major. Marriage and family soon interrupted and so I am actually self-taught. I started exhibiting at art fairs in 1977. My rule has been "anywhere east of the Rockies" and that has given me many happy adventures and a few challenging ones. I've traveled by myself a lot and had flats, blown tires, blown engines, dead batteries and dead fuel pumps! I've learned the problems always find a way to work out - but it can get interesting!
My work is a combination of gouache and pencil. Gouache is an opaque watercolor similar to tempera. It gives me the strong color I want and flows well enough from the brush to produce fine detail. Many artists tell me they've had trouble working with gouache but I'm used to it and know its ways. Generally, I paint my subject first and then use a black colored pencil to render the foliage or landscape. I like the contrast between the two mediums and enjoy working with both. Since pencil will smear, I paint my subject before I do the pencil work. Ideas come in various ways. Sometimes it's a bird I've wanted to portray for a long time and sometimes it's the twists and turns of a branch that's caught my attention. We are fortunate to live in a wooded area a few miles from town and there is always something interesting out there.