As a child, I loved to draw so my wonderful parents sent me to art classes when I was five. A painting in oil when I was six entitled: “Fruit, Wine and Sunshine” won a blue ribbon at the county fair. Regular art lessons continued into my teens. I always painted and wrote, even in my dorm room and in rare, spare moments in law school.

But after graduation I turned away from painting because the saying about law being a jealous mistress is true. I have traveled all over the US, Europe and even China and observed the great art of the world. My strong creative impulses found outlets as part of my legal career but not in art.

In 2013, I was writing a memoir and a friend suggested that I get “someone” to illustrate it. This provided the impetus for me to to tune up the fundamental lessons from my youth. My art career has now overtaken my other life and patrons, friends and supporters encourage this immersion.

The form that passion usually takes today is with acrylic en plein air, using palette knives for an impasto effect. I was always drawn to the palette knife and its textures. But, now I am dedicated to using it exclusively to encourage looseness and coloring outside of lines and formats. There are so many different pallet knives today and in the hand, each one inspires a different stroke. And, acrylic is a modern medium that allows adventures in painting beyond oil.

Another friend encouraged me to paint outdoors in 2014. That year I took an amazing trip to Italy where I took art classes in Florence for two weeks and painted en plein air around Tuscany.

I see my hand and eyes as a conduit of light and color from nature, flowers, sunlight, beaches, earth and sky to canvas, hard board and wood via acrylics. I am truly uplifted into a different dimension by the release of endorphins in my brain from the color and sunshine. And, the feeling of a merger with nature by painting it from life is indescribable. I have painted scenes in San Antonio, Austin, Wimberley, Padre and Mustang Island and other Texas locations. I have also painted in a growing list of locations including Italy, Germany, Colorado and Philadelphia.

Above all, I want my work to be “a thing of beauty.” For my own soul the need is to find a way to look at and express the beauty that I see. This intention is for my own good and enlightenment. And, I hope for others as well it can represent a focus that doesn’t deny pain and sorrow, but lifts the sight beyond it.

Today, I am part of the amazing community at Hausmann Millworks. I’am a member of the River Arts Group in San Antonio, and exhibit in Austin at Art for the People Gallery. I have been an exhibitor in a number of juried art shows, restaurant shows, and have wonderful collectors and patrons in San Antonio, Austin, Denver and other locations. In summer 2017 I was honored to have led the painting classes for Reflections of Tuscany, a food and art retreat in Calamecca, Italy. I donate pieces to worthy causes on a regular basis in gratitude for the wonderful life I have lived, especially my current immersion in art.