Best known for my marine art my passion is using watercolor’s mystical medium to depict dancing reflections on the water. I enjoy capturing the essence of
Mother Nature’s senses into seascapes and location landscapes.
My most influential mentor and accomplished marine artist, Ray Hunter,
taught me that water and reflection can be mastered with this medium. He instilled in me how strong value contrasts create compelling compositions. I have also been profoundly inspired by Winslow Homer by studying his paintings and his life travels to distant locations. His marine genre works and his zest for realism are qualities that draw me to his compositions.
Like Homer, I strive for realism in my paintings without attempting to be ‘photographic’. The viewer is then free to experience the feeling and emotion the watercolor communicates. I seek out locations and subjects that can evoke an emotion or feeling. I look for elements in a scene that will allow artistic composition to take the viewer to a place one cannot go on an ordinary day.
I enjoy sharing art through instruction and delight in teaching watercolor at Rogue Community College and in regional workshops. I encourage new students by telling them that learning to paint in watercolor is as easy as learning how to walk, but it takes most people two years to learn how to walk well.
That encouragement begins with the belief that if you paint from the heart the work will touch the heart of others.
I am a member of Josephine County Artists Association. I have received several awards, and displayed in a solo show at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum. My paintings have been on exhibit at juried shows at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Semana Nautica, The Creator's Gallery and the Josephine County Fair.
