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After teaching at the elementary and middle school levels
for twenty-one years, I decided to explore the world of watermedia, which has
always fascinated me. Color intrigues me, and creating interesting combinations
of color is a challenge and a delight. I paint because I love to experiment
with the pigments, with various shapes, and with textures on the paper; the
spontaneity of watermedia produces unexpected and wonderful effects. Combining
various mediums – watercolor, acrylic, pencils, crayons, collage papers, found
objects, texture mediums, iridescent, pearlescent, and metallic paints –
produces effects which complement each other and create often vibrant, sometimes
subtle, and always different appearances. Experimentation with a variety of
materials is always exciting and often surprising. The resulting “happy
accidents” are often the highlights of a painting. Studying with a number of
nationally known artists has provided me with inspiration as well as with
technique, with enthusiasm, and with a keen desire to continue exploring the
many possibilities one has within this multifaceted medium. Although most of my
work is non-representational, I enjoy using photos from my travels as references
for beginnings. These starts can lead to an abstract interpretation of somewhere
I have visited or become a more realistic depiction in a semi-abstract
painting. My recently begun series, “Beginnings,” is based loosely on The
Creation in Genesis and requires the viewer to use imagination to
understand the paintings. As I continue to produce new paintings, I continue to
explore and combine new techniques and materials with old while always striving
to expand my areas of expertise and create something new and unusual. |