As an avid art collector, I filled my home with paintings I loved for over 30 years, and in 2011 I began my own journey as a watercolorist, initially concentrating on landscapes. The ever-changing horizons of Payne’s Prairie which I traversed every day, the deep foliage around my Micanopy woods, and the ferns, live oaks and magnolias were the earliest inspiration for my work.
Recent work employs all watermedia: watercolor and acrylic paint, watercolor pencils and crayons, and collage with hand-painted papers. Though I paint purely abstract work as well, I tend toward an abstract naturalism, often combining representational and abstract forms to reflect a vibrant, glaring beauty of our natural world. I am drawn to painting natural structures of all types, following my attraction to color, shape and light. Botanical shapes like sea grapes, long leaves of all types, hydrangeas in transition, live oaks that reach all the way across the road, the stark beauty of the wetlands and the beaches-- and the colorful wildness of Florida and the Caribbean have captivated me. My paintings also reflect images from my travels to Italy, Greece, Spain, France, Montana, Arizona, Key West and the Dominican Republic.
I hope my paintings elicit an emotional response from the viewer, as I attempt to share my way of seeing. The longer I paint the more I find that my work changes and evolves whether I think I'm ready to move on or not; the work takes me there.
I have had several solo exhibitions in the Gainesville area and am a participant in the GFAA Studio Tour. Over the past ten years I have received eleven awards for my work. Currently my work is included in a year-long exhibit at UF Innovate – The Hub.
