I consider my art representational realistic artwork. It is about ordinary items of life that have beauty to be found. I paint primarily oil paintings, but have a lot of colored pencil artwork and mixed media artwork with a combination of colored pencil and pastel, all mediums that render subjects realistically. I'm always open to trying new mediums and subject matter. However, for me the joy is not in the medium, but the ability to capture an image and make it timeless.  I paint pet portrait art, portraiture art of adults and children, floral art, landscapes and still life fine art. 

Most of my artworks I've done are from photographs. I usually have a camera at my side and enjoy photographing just about everything. Since I am a detailed realistic painter I find I can't paint instinctually enough to paint  a landscape while sitting in the middle of a field.  Unfortunately a photograph never gives you the beauty of the light that you see that attracts you to the scene. I know I am taking the right photos because I so often see someone else's painting in a magazine that is very similar to something in my photo journal. My still life I can manipulate the light to give it the effect that I want and take a variety of photographs. Of course flowers are just  beautiful!  I have flowers gardens (10) every spring that I plant. The summer is too short for me, but I enjoy the color and design of each flower. Each year I tell myself to quite taking so many flower photos, but each year I find myself out there with my camera. And of course there are the portraits.  Being able to paint  a likeness, I feel, is a great gift. We have photographs of our past presidents, for example, but it is the paintings of them that we remember. And then there are our pets...........

My first award was from a colored pencil artwork of my beautiful Vincent, my cream colored Maine Coon and Persian  mix cat. And it was a big award, Best of Show. My colored pencil artwork of my son and one of our outdoor cats, Laverne, in the winter on  a sled, was picked for the cover of the Art Calendar Magazine December 2005 issue. It seems that if I add a cat or dog to a painting it seems to sell faster. So, yes I have a certain passion for painting pets. They are so much a part of our families and our lives.

I think if you ask another artist, they will tell you being an artist is part of our chemistry. It isn't something we can stop doing.