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I have decided to share my painting history and perhaps along the way, this story will find it's way.

Just seven years ago I decided to enroll in a beginner oil painting class under the direction of long time friend and mentor, Ruth Cox, well with her calm quiet demeanor and her spirit, I was able to grasp some very important lessons,

Our first actual painting home work, resulted in the ugliest pink swan thing you have ever seen. She said paint like you are a millionaire! So I am sure I used a whole tube of pink paint, that swan took years to dry.

I am going to try to remember the sequence of my painting history and share where I was at the time.

humm, with over 350 paintings, this could take a while, but again, remember this has been a long seven years, hehe, not really. .

Copper Kettle, was an 'in class' project. We had to set up a box with all  the primary colors on all sides, place a reflective item in the box, light the item and

then paint " what you see, not what you THINK you see"

I throughly enjoyed this project. There were many exercises prior to this that did not include the use of paints until now. Using charcoals to force yourself to see the shades and cut outs of mosaics to make you see where color begins and ends. So then I just start playing with paint and trying to find what works.

I tend to like instant gradification and so when I begin a painting, I am 'all in'. 

This painting came in during our classroom stuff, finding the shapes of the shadows and more graphic seperations.

At the time,

Ruths class was a great escape for me. I was seeing someone new after being a single Mom for 8 years and I enjoyed my time finally doing something for me.

As an Interior Designer, I have seen a great deal of paintings and I began to look more closely and realize all the many styles and directions and how none is right or wrong, it just feels good to create!

The Crest toothpaste was probably the first piece someone actully gave me money for.:) That was fun. It had lots of texture and felt the toothpaste.