At the age of ten, recognizing my interest my mother began teaching me to draw. I am sure it was an effort on her part to get me out of her art materials---by giving me a few of my own---and teaching me how to use them. By thirteen, still drawing, I was presented with a set of oils and brushes, which I dove into using immediately. My first painting, a horse surrounded by prairie fire, my mother purchased, so I of course realized I could do this for a living!

Through the teenage years I tagged along to art classes, workshops and shows, learning and selling whenever I could. At one point my parents pulled me aside, telling me I could no longer accept freelance artwork; I was taking on so much of it they were afraid it was interfering with homework.

I began college with an art intention, but immediately ran into problems. The college programs emphasized abstract, pop and conceptual art, and I was bent on developing my drawing skills, with an eye towards illustration, science or medical. I left the college art program after taking several courses, and instead majored in Recreation with an Art Administration emphasis, and continued my art education with private instruction by working artists----exactly the type of instruction I give in my own studio today.

Subsequent to graduation with my B.S., I went to work in the publishing industry, beginning at Addison Wesley (schoolbook division) as a technical illustrator and production head. I began my own freelance office part time, on the side, and when I finally felt ready, resigned Addison Wesley and began illustration and production full time from my own office. My assignments included science, medical, and children's texts.

In fine art, I continued my education with several notable artists, studying several years with Bob Gerbracht doing portrait and figure in pastel and oil, as well as Daniel Green, Thomas Leighton, Kitty Wallis, Ramon Kelly, and Albert Handell. With a lot of showing, I earned my signature status for both the Pastel Society of the West Coast and the Society of Western Artists.

Currently painting both on location and in the studio with my husband, Dennis, I also teach studio classes in portrait and figure and still life. Many of my students are college graduates with degrees in art, looking to learn some of the skills omitted by the college curriculum, as I found when I was a student. Some of my students are also people that, after doing their jobs for a living until retirement, are finally taking up the skill of painting as they always intended to do. And still, some are stay-at-home moms, working folks, or young people currently enrolled in college. I have been teaching some dozen years now, and truly love to pass along what I have learned and my enthusiasm for seeing.

Portrait, figure and still life pieces are done in the studio, my location (landscape) painting, en plein aire pieces are for the most part done in my favorite spots for painting, Yosemite, Pacific Grove, and Point Lobos.