"Rest in My Rugged Heart" Painting

I grew up in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains in Connecticut and began lessons with oils when I was nine.
Now my chosen medium is acrylics because they work well in my traveling lifestyle. My path has offered the opportunity to live in several states, the Carolinas, California, Virginia, Texas, Hawaii, Kansas, and Massachusetts. My paintings have found homes as far away as Japan, Norway, and South America. The years I spent as a linguist in the US Army and a Marine Corps dependent gave me the gift of travel. Browsing my portfolio is holding postcards from my life. Hanging my work in your space is a window to something that clung to my heart and mind long after I moved on my path.

I explore in ever widening rings from where I am, I am a witness to that time, that place. I have moved 19 times and lived in nine states. I am about finding the small spaces, hidden places and mercurial skylines, returning at different times of day. The effect of the light is of special interest to me. Reflections in water, glass, ice, a polished floor offer the kinds of challenges I want to master. I prefer working on a larger canvas, building them to complement the subject. I want to see a very small phenomenon grow mighty and beautiful.

I stretch my own canvases using medium weight unprimed cotton canvas on Blick standard or Best heavy duty stretcher bars. I prefer to choose each painting's dimensions and shape. I prime my canvases with Golden black gesso. The final surface is protected with Windsor Newton satin varnish. I use Liquitex acrylics in soft and heavy body diluted with Golden airbrush medium, water and Golden acrylic medium gels. I trained for years in oil paints but switched to acrylics to accommodate my traveling lifestyle.

WASAA Western Avenue Artists Association Artist Member
Whistler House Museum of Art/Lowell Art Association Artist Member
USVAA United States Veterans’ Artists Alliance Advisory Board Member