I am a painter. I work primarily in soft pastels and secondarily in oils, casein and mixed media. I am attracted to landscapes, architecture, and abstract themes based on nature.
The underlying theme that runs through all of my work is the idea of a heightened reality. Growing up in the Los Angeles area, I was inspired by the saturated light and color of the Southern California landscape. Additionally, a somewhat metaphysical element drives my creative process. I have always been intrigued by my own dream imagery – that intense sense of reality that is experienced in the rare lucid dream or in moments of pure transcendence. My goal is to paint images that exist on a slightly higher vibration to elicit an enhanced sense of mood and feeling…
My abstractions are created through a largely intuitive process based on the premise of a deconstructed landscape or more accurately, a piece of a collective subconscious sketchbook of what the process of perceiving and inventing what would become nature might look like.
Soft pastel has been my preferred medium since I first started exploring with it in college. Nothing compares to those pigments to achieve the rich color and spontaneity they provide. I work with numerous varieties and brands from the butter-like Unison to the soft Sennelier, as well as homemade sticks. My surfaces are the finest archival papers and prepared boards. Layers of color are applied and some blending is achieved using fingers and blending sticks.
I have returned to painting in oils, as well as casein, acrylic and various combinations of these incorporating charcoal, graphite and oil sticks. I am taking time to experiment with media that I have not worked with in a long while and it is refreshing to bring out tools I haven’t used in years.
I am a wife and mother. Over the years I continued to migrate north in California, finally reaching what some call Baja Oregon. For 14 years our family lived within the redwoods and near the ocean, in the artist friendly city of Eureka, California. It was a wonderful time. In early 2016 my husband Bruce and I, along with our mini-dachshund named Buddy, relocated to Taos, New Mexico, the antithesis of the northern coast of California. It is inspiring me in new ways. With 360 degree views from our home and my new studio I am in bliss!