As an artist...

    ... I'm both a self-taught and a classically-trained painter. Born in the early '50s near Tallahassee, Florida, I took to art as soon as I was able to hold a pencil or crayon. Throughout my childhood, I developed an appreciation for my natural surroundings as I stomped through the woods and along the nearby lakes and rivers exploring the world around me, and while spending many happy hours fishing with my Daddy.

    Often sitting in the shade of a tree, or in the fields near my home, for hours, I could be found absorbing the peace and beauty of Nature, and the many living things found there.

    After high school, I attended Santa Fe College and then the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida -- and I accepted my first professional art project in 1991.

    Never one to start small, I designed and produced a monumental, all-walls, and partial ceiling mural in the playroom of my first clients' new estate home. Later, for these same clients, I also designed and produced nursery room and an outdoor kitchen murals, in paint and tinted glazes. For the next 7 years, I worked almost exclusively for these same clients designing and managing other extensive projects for them and their children.

    From 1995 until 2002, most of my commissions were large-scaled mural and portrait contracts for many local residents of Gainesville, while I was also working full-time as a staff member at Queen of Peace Catholic Church, and later as a Design Consultant for a local tile contractor and his retail sales store; also I continue to assist my husband, Walt, in our business which serves N. Central Florida and has since 1976.

    My first commission for an animal companion portrait was in the late 1990s and, subsequently, I added pet portraits to my inventory of painting forms, and eventually branched out to include people portraits also (though these are restrictive in their exclusiveness -- taking many days and weeks to complete). Offering both types in a variety presentations, ranging from full-focus on just the subject of the portrait or setting the subject within richly vibrant and detailed landscapes, both real and imaginative.

    By 2001, I considered myself to be a professional, full-time artist.

    Gainesville has been my home since 1971, and I live here with my husband Walt, and our two animal friends, Spike the Purrfect Cat and Snowball the Lapdog Extraordinaire.  Currently I'm accepting new commissions for a variety of  studio projects.