"The Hutch" Painting

I did not create art for forty years. Then, in my fifties, I picked up a paintbrush again, and my journey as a painter began.

During those four decades, my creative energy went into raising my five children, publishing four children's books, teaching, and working as an editor and administrative assistant. I grew up in a suburb of New York City, the third of seven children, in a lively household that welcomed people, animals, and children alike—it was there that I first discovered my love of drawing and painting.

Art was my favorite subject in high school, but I went on to study journalism in college and later worked in New York City at CBS News and Condé Nast Publications. I married my high school sweetheart, and this thing called life happened: kids, careers, and two long-distance moves. In 2018, with a quiet house and space to return to myself, I picked up where I had left off decades earlier—first with graphite portraits and watercolors, then moving into acrylics and mixed media.

Over the past several years, I have immersed myself in art theory and practice, completing the twelve-week ART2Life program, Jane Burton's Fearless Abstraction, and numerous other workshops. My work is influenced by Helen Frankenthaler, Willem de Kooning, Piet Mondrian, Richard Diebenkorn, and Claude Monet.

My life centers on family, travel, gardening, and art—and I feel fortunate to spend my days doing what I love.