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My passion for art has been a life long journey of many transitions which has taken me through different locales, mediums, education, style, and subjects. The long journey began as a dramatic major at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio in 1964 where I developed the appreciation for the arts. As I followed my husband, a career naval officer, to the East coast I took fundamental drawing and painting courses in composition and color theory. My works were dominated by subjects common to the New England landscape and didn't change dramatically until 1980 when retirement from the Naval service led to my return to the Oxford, Ohio area.
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I felt at home back at my Alma Mater and in the classroom with a passion for watercolor painting. Outside the classroom I studied under prominent area artists Lori Livingston, Paul Amelia, and Jean Vance. Once again the subjects of my works were dominated by the local landscape but with much more refinemant. Little did I know that a major change was to take place. Another retirement move to Hickory, NC in 1996.
I arrived in Hickory as a watercolorist and found myself among a great group of artists diverse in medium, subject, style, and technique and was motivated to try them all. Back in the classroom, and many workshops later I did some sculpting, print making, and abstract subjects but concentrated on realistic painting. Hickory artist, Judy Rider, was an excellent teacher and motivated me to continue my education in watercolor painting. I studied under Jean Grastorf, Alex Powers, and Fred Graff. Classes at the Caldwell Community College by Jean Cauthen really got me interested in landscape painting with acrylics and oils. It was time for my art work to get a more critical review through juried contests, exhibitions, and gallery sales. I am particularly proud of my juried membership in the Piedmont Painters Association (the oldest art group in Hickory). My transtition to oils is about complete in a locale blessed with landscape as a subject. A newly found interest in human and animal protraits was motivated by portrait painter Kay Robb, friend and mentor. The style of my work has been likened to the Russian Impressionists Sergei Bongart and Nicolai Fechin and is probably an indication that my journey has hust begun.
This journey has become less about me and my art than about everyon else's art. More and more of my time is spent promoting the arts by serving as a board member in art organizations and organizing art exhibitions. I maintain a studio in downtown Hickory where I am surrounded by artists and continue to learn and teach children and adult art classes. As I prepare to teach landscape painting at the Hickory Museum of Art I am humbled that someone wants to learn from a life long student of the arts.
