Remembrance, Pastel, 24x18. Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, DC. 


The Mall in DC is filled with magnificent memorials and structures, but none filled me with a sense of awe and reverence like The Wall. It is stunning in its simplicity and beauty, and reflections. 


I decided to paint this as a solitary figure gently touching a remembered name. Although the reflections are spectators, they seem to embody the soldiers who are honored with their names carved into the marble.

Faces of Kenya

Faces of Kenya, 1996. A long time ago, but the memories and photos of the Maasai and Samburu linger and rewind into an ongoing series of paintings. Enjoy them in my video, pulsing with music and sights, then give me a google +1. Thanks!

Right Brain Left Brain

Lots of people will say they are not creative. But painting does not flow just from the creative side of the brain. True, that's the enjoyable part of painting: stroking the splash of color, not believing you are actually going to use THAT color. Seeing a real emotion materialize on paper as a face comes alive is almost like being outside your body, watching something being created. Sometimes you wonder how the painting came to that point.

But painting also REQUIRES the analytical side of the brain: the whole process from white, blank paper to masterpiece is problem solving and decision making. The nose looks too long; how can I use color or shape to change it? I need the background to sit down; how can I make the flat ground not look like a wall staring at me? The composition is one sided; do I crop the finished work or add content on that side?

Even, as in this painting, my husband took a 30 second look and said, "his face is too young, skin too smooth." So, how could I age him? Or , again this painting, I love this part of the background, but this side isn't working; what to do? And, the right side needs a better negative space, but gosh I really don't want to draw another bottle. Add, or leave it? The thinking, deciding, doing is a constant that, hopefully, brings the painting to a beautiful finish. 

I know I will continue working on this painting. Some parts still bother me, especially the background. But parts of it are good, the result of all those decisions!

View the 30 second video from white paper to all those Pepsi bottles.

Frilly Lily

Frilly Lily, what better name could there be? She's just in time for Easter and painted in her natural colors. Stroll through My Garden and Pick A Flower. $150 easy PayPal purchase on my website.

The pastel painting of this flower did not require any made-up colors; I just wanted to paint the fragile, delicate petals as nature made them. Planted and blooming in the D.C. Museum Mall area, this lily had many friends. Lavishly planted beds of color kept my camera clicking, as I walked from one museum tour to another. It's a wonderful, beautiful part of our nation. 

Flowers and Color Imagination

"Take a look at this." My mentor friend showed me a fantastically colored painting of a flower — oversized, in imagined color, but absolutely as recognizable as if it had been painted in its local color. Seeing the creativeness of that artist in painting a flower was an "aha" moment. I had never wanted to paint flowers before; painting people is my thing. 

But this way of looking at a flower, painting a single bloom rather than a floral arrangement, painting in colors that come solely from imagination, that would be fun. I knew I could use a black and white photo as a value study and translate those values to whatever color scheme I chose.

Kaleidoscope Magnolia was the first, and was a big hit. Many flower paintings have since found their way onto my easel. They become mesmerizing, and looser than my figurative art.

Reading Vanessa Diffenbaugh's book, The Language of Flowers, I realized that all this time I had been telling the language of flowers with my paintings. Instead of using words to describe flowers, I had been using the beautiful range of pastel colors to describe their them.

I've admired Raphael's The Three Graces, and many artists' interpretation of them. It was an easy transition to my version, three magnolia blooms twining and curving into each other. My own Three Graces grace the opening scene in my YouTube Video, Painting the Language of Flowers. Enjoy the pastels, the color, the music, then visit Pick A Flower, to purchase an original for $150.

Pick A Flower

Got 30 seconds? Actually, this video is shorter than that, so .... Pick a Flower.

Pick A Flower

I love golf, just about as much as I love painting. This little story by a golfer brings home a point most of us could apply to our artwork as easily as to any sport or activity we love: Play a game that you want to play.