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I love paint. I love the soft, dusty, velvety feel of a pastel stick. I love loading a brush and the buttery feel of oil paint being stroked on a canvas. I love the smell of oil paint and linseed oil.
I love color. I love the process of mixing paints and creating colors. I love placing colors next to one another until a painting glows. Every time I open one of my pastel sets, it feels like Christmas all over again. All those beautiful colorful sticks are like tiny little packages under the tree, just itching to be tried out and sampled. I love finding colors that harmonize and sing with each other or a color that screams “look at me!”
I love being outside. When I look at nature, I’m drawn both to place and detail. The world is full of abstract shapes and patterns waiting to be discovered — the light and dark areas created when leaves overlap with sunlight behind them, the overlooked forms that a rose’s shadow casts upon another flower, the minute detail in a single blossom or the abstract masses of trees among swaying grasses.
And then it has to become a painting.
Three artistic concerns interweave in my paintings, sometimes separate, sometimes co-mingling — composition, color relationships, and light and shadow (values). A painting may take several hours or several months, depending on the complexity of the piece. The composition provides the structural bones. I look for interesting textures and shapes and lines that help lead the eye around the painting. This enhances the subject, as I try to get you to see what I see.
The sketch that underlies each painting is drawn from direct observation and from photographic studies. I like realism, and want you to respect what nature really is, but that does not mean the painting cannot have abstract qualities as well. My technique is sometimes tight and sometimes loose. In any case, the relationships between individual colors and values elicit tension or harmony between the painting and you. In this way, I try to get you to feel the love and awe that nature gives me.
With chalk pastels I can stroke the colors one on top of the other. As the layers build up, the colors blend together and create new colors. Because the surface I use is rough, bits and pieces of the original colors peek through. Whether the piece is more representational or more abstract, I revel in the excitement and emotion color makes. I want the color and value to pulse with life, and life is both exciting and peaceful. Life is also complicated, and I look for complexity in the color interactions.
Each painting also mirrors expanse and detail. When viewed from a distance, my painting will be a visually coherent image. Viewed at close range, the image breaks down into broken pieces of color. I hope that my paintings come alive for you, capturing the feel and wonder of life’s beauty.
JURIED EXHIBITIONS, RESIDENCIES, and AWARDS
Campbell House, One-Person Show, Southern Pines, NC, 2013
Meredith College Rotunda, Botanical Art, Raleigh, NC, 2012
UNC Botanical Garden, Instructor’s Show, Chapel Hill, NC 2012, 2007
Pastel Society of North Carolina, Member’s Show, Ambleside Gallery, Greensboro, NC, 2009-2012
Raffaldini Vineyard Exhibit, Ronda, NC, 2011
Miniature Show, Germanton Gallery, Germanton, NC, 2010, 2009, 2005 – 2002
Paint North Carolina, Member’s Show, North Carolina Museum of Natural Science, Raleigh, NC 2010
Guild of Natural Science Illustrator’s of the Carolinas, Member’s Show, North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 2010
Guild of Natural Science Illustrator’s, Member’s Show, Fort Kent, Maine 2009
North Carolina Museum of Natural Science, One-person Show, Raleigh, NC 2009, 2003, 2000
Pastel Society of North Carolina, Member’s Show, High Point, NC 2007
UNC Botanical Garden, One-person Show, Chapel Hill, NC, 2005
The Pastel Journal’s 6th Annual Pastel 100 Competition, 2004 Best in Wildlife, 2004 Honorable Mention
Denali National Park and Preserve, Summer 2004
Miami Metro Zoo, Invitational, Miami, FL, 2004
Society of Animal Artists Annual Shows: 2004-2000, 1998-1997, 1995-1994
Award of Excellence: 2000
National Museum tour: 2004, 2001, 2000, 1995
Raleigh Municipal Building, One-Person Show, Raleigh, NC, 2004, 1996
Things with Wings, Germanton Gallery, Germanton, NC, 2005 – 2002
Airlie Gardens Outdoor Arts Festival, Wrightsville Beach, NC, 2004, 2003
Florida Wildlife Art Expositions, Florida, 2004, 2003
Atlanta Home and Garden Show, Atlanta, GA, 2003
Third Place
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Birds in Art, Minneapolis, MN, 2003
American Society of Botanical Artists, Portland Home and Garden Show, February 2003
American Society of Botanical Artists, United States Botanic Garden, Washington, D.C., October 2002
National Geographic’s Explorer’s Hall, Washington, D.C., Summer 2002
American Society of Botanical Artists, Johnson and Johnson headquarters, New Brunswick, NJ, April 2002
Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum, Invitational Black and White show, Oradell, NJ, 2000
MEDIA COVERAGE
Focus, Ritratti Selvaggi, Milan, Italy, January 2005
The Raleigh News and Observer, What’s Up, July, August 2004
Independent Weekly, June 23-29, 2004
PBS TV broadcast, June 2003, The 1899 Harriman Expedition Retraced: A Century of Change, Alumnae Association and Clark Science Center of Smith College & Florentine Films
u.s.art, November, 2001, page 23
The Raleigh News and Observer
North to Alaska: A Triangle Artist will help retrace an 1899 scientific expedition, July 20, 2001,
G. D. Gearino
Best of Wildlife 2, 1999, The Best of Wildlife Art, 1997, North Light Books, Rachel Rubin Wolff
LECTURES
North Carolina Pastel Society, 2010 — What’s in Your Stick
Guild of Natural Science Illustrators Annual Conference, 2007 — From Siennas to Quinacridones, A Brief History of Pigments, How to Read a Paint Tube; 2006 — From Siennas to Quinacridones, A Brief History of Pigments; 2004 — Making a Pastel Surface; 2002 — Paintings and Illustrations from Alaska
Durham Technical Community College, 2004 — Artist in Alaska
New Hope Audubon Society, 2003 — Artist in Alaska
North Carolina Museum of Natural Science Junior Curators, 2002 — How Artists Work
Wake County Audubon Society, 2002 — Artist in Alaska
Western Carolina University, 2002 — How I Decided to be an Artist and How Artists Work
Thomas Jefferson Scholar’s, North Carolina State University, 2001 — Artist in Alaska
The 1899 Harriman Expedition Retraced: A Century of Change, 2001 — How Artists Work
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Guild of Natural Science Illustrators Annual Conferences: Discovering the Landscape in Chalk Pastels, Painting in Chalk Pastel, How to Draw a Tree, Plein Air Pastels, Pastel Painting, How to Mix and Match Colors, Basic Color Theory, How to Find the Values of Color
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences: Field-sketching
UNC Botanical Garden’s Certificate Program: Basic Drawing, Beginning Composition, Integrating Composition and Color Theory, How to Paint a Feather, Mixing and Matching Color, How to Paint a Flat Wash, Light on Form, How to Paint a Cast Shadow, and Paint a Petal
The North Carolina Museum of Art: Color Theory
The 1899 Harriman Expedition Retraced: Lecture: A Century of Change, Field-sketching workshops
COLLECTORS
Denali National Park, Alaska
Clark Science Center, Smith College, Director
Fort Bragg
GlaxoSmithKline
North Carolina Museum of Natural Science, Director
Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Conservation Fund
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Foundation
Wildlife in North Carolina magazine, past Art Director
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Guild of Natural Science Illustrators
2010 Chair and Housing/Registration Coordinator for the 2010 GNSI Annual Conference
Guild of Natural Science Illustrators of the Carolinas
Past Programs Chair
North Carolina Botanical Garden, Botanical Illustration Certificate Advisory Council
Pastel Society of America, Signature Member
Society of Animal Artists, Signature Member
Paint NC
Pastel Society of North Carolina
President
Chair, 2012 Statewide Pastel Exhibit