I love painting. It’s a wonderful escape and I don’t want to live without it. I started painting when I was 9 after my aunt bought me some paints, brushes and those small flat canvas boards. My first painting was of a dog sitting in front of a Christmas tree. My second painting was of a wave and some rocks by the ocean. It wasn’t until I was 16 that I started painting more seriously in Miss Dubois’s class in high school. She was tough! I will never forget how to properly clean a brush! When I paint representationally, my focus is on people, but I do like to paint horses and occasionally some other things.

I worked on a series using small canvas boxes where I was studying the feminine form. I wanted to experiment with layers of spray paint for the backgrounds and then acrylic and black marker for the forms. I also wanted to have some transparency in places to let the background come through.