Born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, I spent my childhood exploring the woods and fields around my home and fishing with my father in surrounding lakes and streams. Every season had its colors, birds and special smells. Mine is a family of painters. Two of my aunts went to the Chicago Art Institute in 1910 and were my inspiration. I received a BA at the University of Arkansas and an MFA from the University of Iowa majoring in art history and printmaking with Mauricio Lasansky. I am now a full-time painter specializing in oil and pastel landscapes, still life and portraits. I have recently been designated a Master Pastelist by the Pastel Society of America.

For 18 years I worked as a scenic artist painting for major motion pictures, television and Broadway houses working primarily for Woody Allen, Spike Lee, Tim Robbins, Martin Scorsese, Saturday Night Live, Law and Order and the Metropolitan Opera, NY. I also founded the Blue Mountain Gallery, a figurative Chelsea gallery in NY.

Painting venues include The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Arkansas; Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Fl; the Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY; Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, and many more. Awards include The Pastel Society of America Terry Ludwig Award, the Pastel Society of Hawaii Award, the National Arts Club Award, the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, Flora Gifuni Pastel Award, the National Society of Painters in Casein and Acrylic Award.

My paintings are in numerous public and private collections including Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY; Columbia Univ. Medical Center, New York, NY; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR; Thacher, Proffitt and Wood LLP, New York, NY; Tafapolsky and Smith LLP, San Francisco, CA; Avon Corporation,New York, NY; Towers Perrin, Stamford, CT; Giro Credit Bank, Vienna, Austria; Castrol North America, NJ; McCown & Evans LLP, San Francisco, CA; Ellen M. Krass Productions, Los Angeles, CA; Southern Arkansas University, Magnolia, AR; Hunter College, New York, NY; Cedar Crest College, Allentown, PA; Maimonides Medical Center, New York, NY; Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, to name a few. Selected public commissions include Portrait of Phillip O. Alderson, M.D., Columbia University Medical Center, NY; Portrait of Sylvia Barker, Nursing Department, Mount Sinai Medical Center, NY; Gumbel Memorial Fountain, Audubon Park, New Orleans, LA. and numerous private commissions.

Publications include Who's Who in American Art, Marquis Who's Who,New Providence, NJ; Who's Who of American Women, Marquis Who's Who, New Providence, NJ; Landscape Inspirations, Rockport Publishers, Rockport, MA; Best of Oil Paintings, Rockport Publishers, Rockport, MA; Best of Acrylic Paintings, Rockport Publishers, Rockport, MA.

I am currently living and painting in Brooklyn, accepting portrait commissions, and showing my work nationally.