Portfolio of Works

Sacred Spaces is a collection of paintings that revere the earth and the amazing species that live here with us.  For me, it is a  spiritual collection.  

I am a birder and awestruck by the beauty of these living ornaments.  I try to capture them, especially the stunning ducks, whose brillance we rarely notice.  Birds surround us as we go through our daily lives, decorating our yards and parks, ever present, adding their song to our lives.  They keep to themselves, finding food, raising and teaching their young, flying thousands of miles in migration, all without intruding in our lives or asking anything from us.....  

We have recently moved back to Oregon, a state both my husband and I consider our adopted "home".  We moved here in 1999 and fell in love with the wide open spaces, natural beauty and slower lifestyle.  We continue to explore the exciting vistas and terrain from the dry east to the lush verdant forest in the west.  It has spectacular national parks and the wild and untamed Pacific coastline.  So much to do, so much to paint.

There are those moments when someone just reaches out and grabs you and yells "Paint Me" and I do.  I don't know whether or not it''s the beauty, the message they convey, or their act of doing something they enjoy that compels me.  But these folks, without knowing, become important in my life, they live with me and I think of them as my very quiet friends.  

I am confessing here that I love flowers and my gardens are always filled with them.  Don't you enjoy being able to go out into your garden and pick a bouquet of your favorites?  But, flowers are often looked down upon in painting circles if one hopes to be taken seriously and I was advised not to paint them.  But, as you see, I sometimes sneak them in.  I don't often paint still lifes but one very long and cold winter, I become obsessed with creating and painting these lovely bottles.

Herein lie many of my "children" who have gone on to be adopted by someone else in their "forever home".  A few are from travels in other countries.  Still others have special meanings for me and I will not part with them.