I am a painter of landscape and local scenery in the Hudson and Harlem Valleys in New York, and in the desert near San Diego, California. I paint for the most part ‘en plein air’ but have painted entirely from photographs and have completed plein air pieces in the studio. I chose this vocation after a long career in the corporate world and am dusting off my skills from my art-major college days, happily immersed in the task of developing my art and finding my ‘voice.’
After graduating Occidental College as a double major in studio art and art history, I earned a Masters in Art History and museum studies from the Williams College-Clark Art Institute. At Columbia University I completed all but my dissertation in the PhD course of study, specializing in landscape painting in the 18th and 19th centuries. This focus I now realize was foundational for my current pursuits, though at the time I had other intentions and goals. Creating art was my orientation from the start and I am happy to be back painting.
Workshops have been extremely important to my finding my balance in this. I have studied with John C. Traynor (Swanzey, NH), Saim Caglayan (Laguna Plein Air Painters), Kate McGloughlin (Woodstock School of Art), and Bill Galen (Santa Fe). Each has been generous with sharing observations, lessons and inspiration and I’m grateful to each one. I paint as often as possible with the Lower Hudson Valley Plein Air Painters, the Borrego Springs Plein Air Painters, and the San Diego Plein Air Painters. I exhibit in the ArtEast (Dutchess County, NY) Open Studio Tour, the Pawling Farmers Market, and at various informal art shows in New England, and in California at the Borrego Art Institute and the community arts festival called ‘The Circle of Art.’
I live in a beautiful part of the country and am grateful for that every day. If I ever run out of inspiration, I plan to progress up any one of the roads in the area and — at one- or two-mile intervals — paint whatever I discover at each stop.
I hope you will come back and check my progress as I post new works.
