As a girl, I grew up on the water and in the woods. Out the door in the morning and back at night, it was free, safe and endlessly amusing. Immersed in nature, I began to see color, texture, light and shadow. It was this endless panorama I stored in my young memory and cherished.
In my early teen years, I saw a Carolyn Blish watercolor my parents had purchased. I became enchanted with the way Blish had captured the light streaming through the window, falling onto the flowers, and cascading across the floor. For me it was a language that expressed the world I had been seeing. This world of light, color and the "beauty of a moment captured timelessly".
About this time my parents retired to Mystic, Connecticut. They moved into my dad's boyhood home on the waterfront, a special family residence where I had spent much of my youth growing up. Relocating with them, I began to paint in earnest, taking classes at the Lyme Academy of Art, and exhibiting locally.
Soon, another season of my life unfolded. My late twenties were a soul searching time for me. I wanted to find the real meaning of life. A series of spiritual
encounters introduced me to a personal God. The truth I was looking for was in my backyard the whole time. Now, when I look at nature, I see the hand of the Master all around me. He has
created a glorious masterpiece. From this canvas, I draw my artistic inspiration.
The next season brought me to Santa Barbara, California, where I met my husband, at that time a novelist and screenwriter in the Los Angeles area. He paints pictures with
words. We have been married now for over 30 years. Early on in our marriage we relocated to Southeastern Connecticut back to my ancestral roots. For most of these years, my creative energies
went to raising our two sons and working with my husband as a gift buyer for our retail store. Both our boys are science and math geeks. Go figure.
The bulk of my watercolor artwork has been produced in the last ten years working as a full time artist. My boys released me from 'motherhood' one day telling me
jokingly to "get a life, Mom." My work of micro-managing them was over.
It is this tapestry of changing seasons that helped to mold my boundless creativity.
Looking at my career experiences to date, I feel that art, like life, is not about the straight line. It is the subtleties, nuances and transparent qualities of the watercolor paint and learning how to let the paint do what it does naturally with skilled control that is the key to success in this art form. The best quality about this medium is its ability to surprise. That is its truest parallel to life, and the greatest test is learning how to make something beautiful out of it.
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