I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and have loved to draw since I was in grade school. I had marvelously influential art classes in high school where I realized painting and drawing were the things for me. I drove an old VW van with the passenger seat ripped out and used it as a studio on wheels to prowl around the Salem countryside. I loved those luscious scenes of farm houses, dusk skies  and  silhouetted birch trees, trains on the valley floor, blackened acres of burned fields, later plowed and dusted with white lime. While other kids spent their time socializing after school, I was hiking around the countryside with my paint set looking for dilapidated farm machinery or rows of blooming orchards to capture on paper.

In the early 1970’s I went to Glasgow School of Art in Scotland,  long before much of anyone traveled abroad. I was surrounded by West of Scotland kids, quite talented kids, and we worked every day, all day, in the studio.  It left an indelible mark on me, not only learning to paint but learning that painting is a lifestyle. I always have a studio with a comfy chair and a piece of carpeting, where all the toys of work wait for me to continue a painting, or start a new piece, or experiment without constraints.

I enjoy using a large range of mediums: drawing materials, watercolor, gouache, oils and collage. I have recently been creating a series of small collages, especially but not only, with kids in mind. Inspired by my 3 grand-nephews, I started with dinosaurs eating ice cream cones and foxes hiding in the bucket of a building site digger.  The more collages I create, the more the ideas come along, humorous little vignettes and zany situations with animals, monsters, dinosaurs, tractors, diggers and speed boats.  I am delighted to begin offering a select line of greeting cards from these collages. I hope you will find them as fun as I do!