Before moving to England in 2014, I taught art at the State University of New York in Geneseo. I’m now lucky to live in the English countryside, nestled on a rolling hill between the moors and the sea, where I have an endless array of heather and waves to paint, and where I teach private lessons and workshops in drawing and oil painting. I spent most of my life teaching traditional drawing and painting skills, but the scenery that surrounds me here has sparked a recent fascination with plein air painting (outside, in the open air). The challenge of completing a painting in a few hours, chasing light and shadows before they change, has forced my brushstrokes to become quicker and looser; I’ve never enjoyed painting more!

In our constantly changing world I feel compelled to paint what I see. I’m drawn equally to portraiture, architecture, village scenes, and the pastoral landscape. The unspoilt and largely untouched hamlets and villages of England fascinate me. Other times, I prefer to isolate the lost and overlooked historic bits of the urban landscape and capture them as they are, or imagine them as they once were, without the cars, roads and electrical wires of progress that have stained their walls and forced them into near obscurity. 

I live in the southwest of England with my husband, daughter, and our little black-and-white dog, who is my frequent plein air companion. Each summer, when I visit my family and friends in America (including my adult son who is a budding voice actor), I bring my sketchbook and pochade box to draw and paint the untouched parts of my childhood and discover new delights.