Artist BIO

Childhood:  My desire to create was very strong and drawing was my refuge, my santuary.  It was an inner compulsion to be separate from the world sometimes.  I was content to spent hours drawing leaves, branches and bugs. A school field-trip to the St Louis Art Museum opened my eyes, adults took painting and drawing seriously, what a revelation!

From age 10 to 14, I studied painting on Saturday mornings with a highschool art teacher.  After highschool, I attended SMS in Springfield, Mo. for 4 semesters, taking every available art course, intro to design, color, etc., but I only wanted to learn to paint like the paintings I had seen at the St Louis Art Museum and that was not happening.  I met my husband, married and became a mother.  I was still painting, but unsure of the new "adult artist" me.  We moved to Fairfield, CT. near NYC.  There I met my teacher.

Becoming an Artist:  Caesar Cirigliano became my teacher and mentor for 5 years.  Working with only black, white, yellow ocher and burnt sienna for the first 3 years, he taught me portrait, landscape and still life painting.  We spent many hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC studying the masters. Working with Ceasar was the greatest education I could have.  From 1970 to 1975 he led me from an insecure young adult struggling to believe in my artist-future to a confident artist in multiple mediums.  As he was leaving for Florida to retire, I ask him "who would be my teacher now?"  His answer formed my future.  "Don't you know?  You are the teacher now.  You have the foundation now."  When I began teaching I used my notes from the 5 years of study with Caesar.  I still use them today.

I opened my first studio in 1980 and began teaching and showing my work in the tri-state area.  We moved to my husband's family home in Ft. Smith AR in 1996.  Since then I have been represented by galleries in Kansas City MO, Scottsdale AZ, and Van Buren AR.  I have shown my work at the Ft Smith Art Center and the Center for Art and Education many times.  I teach private classes and workshops. My paintings are in many private and public collections.

In October, 2016 I moved to Boca Raton FL.  I have joined the Plein Air Palm Beach group, exploring new scenes and making new friends, seeking out galleries and other venues for showing/selling my paintings and teaching.