I grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and spent my Sundays roaming the city's Nelson Art Gallery marveling at the wonderful paintings there. Then, my family began attending the local art shows and I saw "live artists" exhibiting and selling their own paintings. I began to realize I could have an art career! My parents would regret exposing me to this possibility. I never did get "a real job".

At the Kansas City Art Institute and Northwest Missouri State University, I explored several mediums before settling into a paint called gouache. Gouache is opaque watercolor and satisfies my desire for both strong color and subtle color changes. It also seems to create more of the illusion of dimension than transparent watercolor can. Recently, I've been using pencil, especially black pencil, for the foliage and backgrounds. The penciled areas resemble an etching and yet those areas blend well with the birds that are painted in gouache. Together, the gouache and pencil is making an interesting and challenging combination with some great results.

Long ago, my backyard provided inspiration. Then I discovered the Ozark Mountains of southern Missouri. This "city girl" is still amazed at miles and miles of woods, clear rocky creeks and powerful springs. My paintings are intimate fragments of those woods. I moved into the more rugged mountains of Northwest Arkansas in 1978 and began exhibiting at shows throughout the south and mid-west. In 1989, I was selected to study with Canadian artist Robert Bateman - a wonderful experience and honor. In July of 2000, I moved into the gentle hills of southern Indiana and discovered that twenty years of Arkansas had made those mountains my home. I moved back in early 2002.

Though I enjoy the grand views provided by the woods and hills, it's the smaller details that really catch my attention. Subtle color changes in a leaf, the twists of a branch, or the delicate structure of a feather - these things become my paintings. Thoreau said it simply and well, "The question is not what you look at, but what you see." I hope my work helps the viewer slow down and discover the beauty in the small things of nature because there is a whole world of color and texture in just the frilly curl of lichen!

Awards:
Festival in the Park: Charlotte, North Carolina, Best of Show 2001

Commissioned painting for The Butterfly Festival: Mt. Magazine State Park, Arkansas 1999

Mosaics: St. Charles, Mo., Award of Excellence 1998, 1999, and 2000

Museum of the Southwest: Midland, Texas., Honorable Mention 1998

St Louis Festival of Art: St. Louis, Missouri Award of Excellence 1998; Honorable Mention - 1996, 1999; Award of Merit - 1988;

The Red River Revel: Shreveport, Louisiana - Best of Media 1994, 1995, and 1997; Merit Award 2002

Summer Arts Festival: Omaha, Nebraska - Honorable Mention 1995

The Uptown Art Fair: Minneapolis, Mninnesota - Honors Award 1989

Wildlife Art Walk, St. Louis Zoo, St. Louis, Missouri - Award of Excellence 1988 judged by Robert Koenke, editor and publisher of "Wildlife Art" magazine

Oklahoma Wildlife Art Festival, Tulsa, Oklahoma - Best of Show 1987

Art Happening, St. Louis, Missouri - Award of Merit 1986

"The Missouri Conservationist Magazine," - July cover 1979

The National Wildlife Federation Gallery, Washington DC - One-woman show 1978