What is your personal artistic motto or mission in a sentence or two?

Show the viewer what I saw, that made a scene so compelling.

What are three words that describe your style?

Impressionist, landscape, light.

Where are you coming from and how did you start your artistic journey?

When I was a child my family spent summers in Woodstock, New York which, in the 1930s–60s, was a famous art colony. There was lots of beautiful countryside to paint, several schools (including the New York Art Students’ League), galleries, and lots of artists summering there.

Art ran in our family. One of the summer artists, Evelyn Eisgrau, taught painting to my aunts, my mother, my sisters, and me. We often saw landscape painters, and I would often stop to watch their work and ask about it. (Nowadays, I get a big kick out of kids stopping to talk to me.) During middle school, my sister and I, and some friends, went to a painting school where we learned by copying reproductions. Eventually, I attended Cornell as an art student.

What inspires you to create? What holds you back?

Living in Alexandria, Virginia is pretty inspiring. It’s really beautiful, with lots of huge old trees, twisting hilly streets, old-fashioned houses, and lovely gardens. I often find myself saying, “Now that’s a TREE!” about trees I’ve passed many times before and never noticed. Even if I set up at the same scene a few times, the light and color are always changing; the sky and wind are major players.

Weather can hold me back, if it’s rainy, cold or windy (too windy for the French easel). In spring particularly, I have to paint fast because things are changing so quickly.

What is your favorite piece you have created or favorite art experience, and why?

My favorite is usually the one I’m working on! I try not to become attached to works that I may sell. Some of my old favorites are: Garden With Cleomes, Woodland Terrace End, and Lamppost in Garden (you can see them on my website), because you see just what I saw.

Tell us something positive that has happened to you in the last month?

With the warmer weather, I’ve been able to get out and paint! I do graphic design too, so I’m quite active when not painting, but it is so fabulous when nature starts to wake up again.

See more about our Featured Artist, and connect with them here: