Drawing - Painting - Pastel & Collage

   My studio is the place where I feel most free. Time expands, and there are no pressing daily tasks. It is my haven for inspiration, rest, play, reading, writing, yoga and whatever else can be a prelude to artwork. This fine space contains everything I need to make marks, brush color, blend pastels, and meld all manner of things together.

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   I love to draw - - plants, flowers, people, animals, and sometimes, whatever happens to be in front of me. Drawing with graphite, charcoal, conte pencils, brush markers or ink, can be part of the way I make a painting. So are soft pastels - - I shade and intensify colors by blending them on the acrylic surface. Collage elements like torn papers and photographs, fabric, leaves and petals can become another layer. I surround images like flowers with active backgrounds, holding realism and abstraction together.

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   What I’m doing comes together in stages. What I need to know about the next step is contained in the previous one. So I pause, sometimes leave it, come back to study what’s there so far, looking for what the painting needs. It’s an unfolding process which is at the best of times, the most satisfying manner of expressing myself.