

It’s hard to describe your own work. Here it is, look at it – what do you think?
I paint the things I’m attracted to, on location if possible; painting on location brings an immediacy to my work not often found in the studio. Some of my work is very detailed; if I am attracted to the intricacy of the subject I will often make a very thoughtful, intricate painting…I love to draw, and so a very detailed drawing is like solving a puzzle for me.
Some of my paintings are concerned with impressions, the way things make me feel, such as the way the colors of the sunset are echoed on the land…this is looser, more about color and less about detail. I like to paint the light instead of painting the figure; this allows me to show the model without a lot of detail, and also to weave the figure into the background. I try to always keep rhythm and a flowing line in my work.
I have a never ending fascination with the county fair, and am also enchanted with bull riding, perhaps because I love a huge gnarly sweaty crowd scene with lots of color and motion. My husband and I have just moved from rural western Pennsylvania to somewhat coastal Virginia; my plan is to temporarily abandon painting county fair scenes and focus on the beach. The crowd is just as fascinating, and the water as backdrop is just stellar...all those warm skin tones against the blue! Stay tuned.




It's a magical day at the beach...
I'm happy to report that these four paintings are at the Mark Rengers Gallery in Sewickley, PA. I have lots of work there, and I'm lucky to be represented by this wonderful place. The folks who run this gallery are awesome; it's a full service gallery and framing shop, and they have work from a plethora of outstanding artists. For more details, check out markrengersgallery.com. It's my favorite gallery!

Here's how a painting starts.....
Sometimes, when I start a big barn door of a painting, the drawing takes so long to do that I want to be sure about the colors before slapping paint down...so I'll do a small study (this one's 7" x 9") to get things figured out. The painting was done for a truly creative show called "Elements" at the LibertyTown Arts Workshop. Fire, ice, water and earth are the elements; each Libertytown artist was assigned one of these to depict. Mine was earth, so here you have a tractor plowing corn fields under a gorgeous, juicy sunset. I'm trying to create some contrast between the floating pinks and purples in the sky and the solid greens and earth tones in the foreground.
So, I plunged in, and this painting finished up relatively quickly and easily because I felt sure about my colors. It's 19" x 24", which framed up to 30" x 35". I am quite pleased with the feeling of movement inherent in the tractor and surrounding field. I've used an extravagant amount of Windsor Newton gold gouache in this; it's my favorite new paint...it glitters when used thickly, and makes a glowing, subtle wash, which added drama to my sunset.

Plowing the Corn Fields
$750













