PAINTING FOR ME is about love, about memory, about keeping things –– when I paint something I see it, know it more intimately than I otherwise would, and it becomes mine forever.
 
Although I have always wanted to be an artist, I got a B.A. in history of art and a master’s degree in library service. For many years I worked as a children's librarian and accompanied my late husband, a zoologist, on his research trips. Drawing continued to be an avocation; I did a lot of illustration as part of my library job, and wrote and illustrated three books on historic architecture of the West Indies.

When I first picked up pastels in 1994 I fell in love. Each of my paintings is a manifestation of this continuing love affair, which led me to take early retirement in 1996 so I could spend more time painting. My enthusiasm for the medium of pastel seems boundless. It combines painting and drawing in endlessly varied ways, and the intensity of the pure pigments is thrilling.

I realize now that all the experiences of my life have contributed to my art. Trips to Morocco in 2005 and Central America in 2008 inspired me, while travels in Italy motivated me to paint scenes of Tuscany and Venice. Recently I’ve done a series of icebergs and landscapes from Greenland. I continue to find many subjects in the less exotic landscape of Morris County, as well.

I paint because I feel as if everything I’ve seen and loved in my life, as well as everything I see now, is clamoring to be born as a painting. I hope to still be painting when I’m 100 years old.