About

I have been creating art since I was a little girl. I grew up in a very creative household in the rolling hills of the San Benancio Valley, just outside of Salinas, CA. Some of my best memories come from hikes with childhood friends through fields of wild poppies and lupines. 
My family moved to the Northeast in the early 70’s, where I remained until my move to Nashville in 2001. As a young mother in the Northeast, I spent many summer vacations in the Adirondacks with my two daughters.
Most of my paintings carry a strong floral theme, which is inspired both by the vast fields of wildflowers for which central California is known and perennial gardens often found in New York and Tennessee. 
I did not set out to create floral paintings. My first floral began as a seemingly too-thick layer of paint on a canvas that I truly thought would end up a failed experiment, but something compelled me to pick up a pallet knife and begin scooping out chunks of paint. The scooped-out spaces looked like flower petals. I liked it. I continued. Before I knew it, I had sculpted out a canvas full of what I call “posies” with a sort of reverse-embossing method that I have since used in many of my paintings. That first painting became Field of My Dreams and was the first painting I ever sold!
Each of my paintings is an exploration of color, texture and freedom of form. I use a variety of techniques such as blending colors directly on the canvas, adding unusual mediums to my paints and using unconventional tools to create interesting textures. Since that first experiment, I have fallen in love with thick layers of paint. I typically use either a flat background and layer on thick petals, or I’ll layer the background and scoop out the elements. I am also partial to metallic and iridescent mediums. There is almost always an element of shine in my paintings.
I'm not able to have fresh flowers inside my home because of allergies, so I put them on my walls instead.