In addition to my lifelike portraits, my realistic, luscious soft pastel storied still life paintings reflect my life as a cis-gender, post-menopausal woman of British and German ancestry who came late to waking up and seeing the systemic white male patriarchy in our world. Turning the typical still life on its head, I choose historic Western European or contemporary American symbology to explore my observations and experiences, oftentimes in unexpected and/or humorous ways.

 

To create realistic paintings I work in a black box studio with real subjects (no photographs) using techniques dating back to the Renaissance including the sight-size method (painting the same size as the object observed), a black mirror, mahl stick, plum lines, and a viewfinder. One painting takes weeks or months to complete.

 

I studied at the Masters’ Atelier of Drawing and Painting under Nancy Lucas-Williams in Port Townsend, Washington. Currently, I live in New Mexico where my artwork has been selected for multiple juried shows around the Nation.