Gallery -

Gallery 1

          Break Up Point 25"X40"----------$5,600
A young student thought this painting represented a tiger caught under a fence. I had in mind something more abstract. Playing with the theme, "Clamps, Closures, and Constraints" for an invitational exhibition, I thought about possible constraints on brightly colored, patterned shapes and painted in the cold, steel bar. The maverick shapes break up under the pressure and happily float away. I like the simplicity of the young student's constrained tiger. This painting also won an award at a National Rutgers University exhibition.

Coconut Palm 22" X 30" ---------- $5,000
Driving through the Florida Keys, I noticed how the sun distorted and fractured the rich vegetation and blue water. I wanted to organize the chaos produced in these fragments of light and color. I combined two of my scanned photographs of seagrapes and coconut palms. I then manipulated the colors and shapes on my computer to produce an ordered image for reference. I combined watercolor with shapes transferred from a computer image using a heat process. The finished painting tells of the ordered pattern that exists in random chaos.

Reflecting Pool 22" X 30" ---------- $4,600
To make this painting of a reflecting pool, I scanned one of my photographs into the computer and manipulated the shapes and colors. I used the resulting image as reference. The paint flowed, colors blended, soft and hard edges formed, but I couldn't stabilize the final image in my mind. Insight came in the middle of the night during half-sleep. I could imagine stepping into the pool and looking around at the shapes, noticing the lights on the water and for the first time I saw the mist. With the image clear in my mind, I finished the painting.

Solidified Sparks with Tower 25" X 40"---- $6,000 (SOLD)
This painting tells of earth's past information embedded, scrapped, and incised in stone. In remote Wyoming, I watched lightning flash colors across the sky touching rock towers where it could reach. Looking at this painting close up, you can see layers of colored pencil marks, paint, oil crayon and watercolor. The layers show the years of geological data recorded in the rock structures - lightning strikes included. This painting won a top award in a national exhibition. Later it showed in a Texas National Exhibition and was sold to a corporate collector in Texas.

Opened Palms 25" X 40" ----------$5,700

Huge palm fronds cascaded about the studio. A student brought them to my watercolor workshop freshly gathered from her atrium. We analyzed, arranged, and painted the fronds all day enjoying the close up views of our subject. The slivers of bright color in the background tell us of the refracted light found in nature.

Wrapping Paper and Ribbons 22" X 30" --$2,600

The colorful crushed paper and curled ribbons of unwrapped packages make a delightful project for my advanced watercolor workshop. The all-over pattern makes us feel the rhythm and excitement of the moment.

Container 25" X 40" ----------$3,600

Antonio Tapies influenced my work for this series of twenty paintings. He used commonplace materials such as cloth and wood to indicate duality; opposition and conflict. I used watercolor. In the grays, I used granulation and separation of paint to produce the sooty look where sometimes you detect the blue sometimes the orange. The flowing, soft edges of the sooty grays contrast greatly with the bright, hard edges of the floating red and black pieces setting up visual opposition. Many of my paintings represent duality in one way or another.

Wild Plantain 22" X 30" ----------- $3,600

While painting the wild plantain, I had a breakthrough. Without drawing first, I used my brush filled with luscious paint to carve out the shapes of petals and leaves. With a freedom of brush stroke and color, I captured the abstract patterns that suggest nature rather than copying the plant itself. Dashes of color indicate slivers of light peeping from the dark interior of foliage. This painting initiated a series of twenty painted with the pure abstracted shapes I could make with my brush. I teach this method in my watercolor workshops.

Waterfall View 22" X 30" ---------- $4,500

On the island of Dominica, high in a West Indies rain forest, a tepid pool collects water from two waterfalls. From one of the falls, cold water flows from the depths of the jungle. From the other falls, water bursts from a hot spring. The combination of cold and hot water circling in the pool below is just right for relaxing after a hike up the mountain. The view is a must for a watercolor demonstration in my workshop.

Yellow Gladiolus On Blue Background 22" X 30" ----$4,500 (SOLD)

The Cuna Indians inhabit the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama. The women of this isolated tribe craft appliqué designs called molas on their blouses. The background surrounding the stark yellow flowers in this painting is one of the Mola designs we study in my watercolor workshop. One of my students recently asked an old man on the island what he wanted most of all. After a long silence, he responded by pointing to the land, the sea, and the sky. "This is all I need," he said.

Gallery 2

Baked Adobe 22"X 30"------------------ $3,500

In New Mexico, a small adobe village sits atop a mesa. The village once existed on a nearby mesa before the rains came and washed away the only access to the top. The air is clear, the sky is very deep blue and ladders still lean against the roofs, seeming to reach the moon. This painting is my own response to the dwellings blending into the endless variety of colors in the desert - the illusive reds, yellows, purples, golds, lavenders. Earth's planes, primary forms, space and light, baked in the sun and done to a golden brown.

Coconut Confetti 22"X30"--------------------$3,500

The riotous movement of the coconut palms swirled fractals of light like confetti and streamers thrown into the air. With my camera, I caught the crackles of fractals on film. After scanning the photographs into my computer, I manipulated the colors and shapes to add a different perspective to the process of painting. I then used the computer printout as reference to make the watercolor painting. The result is a fractal record of my interaction with coconut palms in the Florida Keys.

It's Like I'm Flying, Mom 25"X40"------------$4,800

"I'm flying over China and when I look down I see your paintings," wrote my friend, Loye, on a post card. "I'm convinced you were a Chinese pilot in a former life." Aerial views dominated my paintings for several years. A two-dimensional kind of surface painting with very little depth. I pushed the watercolor paint to its limits and incorporated wax crayon and salt to create interest on the surface of this painting. The excitement of knowing that every painting is brand new, an image that I (nor anyone else) has seen before, drives me to making the next painting.

Peninsula of Plaid 22"X40"------------$6,800

Nova Scotia's Cabot Trail winds along the coast of the Cape Breton Peninsula. The road overlooks rocky cliffs and formations carved by wind, rain, and ocean. Driving the trail, we discovered a hand-made sign announcing home-made shortbread. In a moment we were on the porch of the little white house receiving a bag of the warm cookies passed through the kitchen window. The Scottish folk had indeed settled in the area years ago and brought their plaid and shortbread with them. This painting represents the peninsula of plaid and if you look carefully you'll probably see evidence of shortbread crumbs.

Berries 22"X30"---------------------$4,800

A trip to a local garden provided a wealth of subjects for our notebooks. We spent the day jotting down our observations, and sketching shapes and colors and painting. I asked each student to choose a subject and begin to paint. They chose subjects such as the irregularity of a branching tree and the tangled vines on a trellis. I chose to demonstrate a close-up view of Shining Oregon Grapes (Berberis Mahonia Aquifalium) with holly-like leaves. The dark blue fruits can be eaten raw but are rather bitter and seedy. It is best made into jelly with lots of sugar.

Yellow Cactus 22"X30"--------------------8,500 (SOLD)
New Gamboge Yellow petals against a Carolina Blue sky brought me to this cactus garden. In this student's garden, I sketched and photographed the striking shapes and colors of the plants, recording the life of the cacti. In this painting, a sense of harmony and discord is established by the softness of the petals in contrast to the lobes punctuated with spines. An individual flower is the result of a unique set of circumstances - a kaleidoscope of gravity, magnetic fields, soil composition, wind, sun angles, insects, and humans. The latticework of coincidence.

Orchid 22"X30"--------------------$6,800

Orchids require the right temperature, light, and humidity. Other than that, they are quite hardy. When I photographed the orchids in the university green house, I was advised the orchid room would fill with mist every fifteen minutes. I asked the "keeper of orchids" who has photographed orchids in exotic places all over the world, if he would give me his best photography hint. "Remove the camera from the room when the mist comes," he said. Good advice. For visual texture, I used "separating colors" in the leaves for a granulated look. In the orchid petals are subtle lines made by using water.

Detailed Palms 22"X30"------------------$7,500

I formed the underbrush in this workshop project by scraping into layers of warm glazes with a palette knife. I began with a detailed drawing before loosening the edges with a variety of green washes that remind me of yarns dyed with a chrome mordant. The fascination with this low country Dwarf Palmetto (Sabal Minor) is how it hides the lights behind the verdant green blades, then surprises us by releasing them sporadically from the dark recesses. I watched the green hues of light and shade weave patterns back and forth - finding harmony in the haphazard life of the fronds.

The Source 22"X30"----------------$6,300

Light through the window forms compositional surfaces on bare walls in this painting. It's the chance encounters with light that give architectural places their rich meaning. This imaginary site is a composite of many structures I've observed - corners of rooms or empty buildings decorated with light. I like to probe and investigate my response to a specific place and express the significant relationship between forms and our connection with them. With paint glazes I created an installation of light to convey a sense of place and mystery.

Harbor________22"X30"--------------------$12,000

For years Murrells Inlet has been known for its seafood. Fishing boats leave the docks daily and return with fresh catch. In this workshop project, I teach students to describe the energy of reflections by first observing the relationship between the shapes of the boats and their corresponding shapes in the water. We look at how light settles on the ripples -- the water wrinkling in the breeze -- the lights wondering where to bounce next. Instead of painting the light reflections with opaque paint or masking them, we paint everything around the lights and leave the white paper to sparkle.

Gallery 3

Waterways and Sawgrass 22"X30"--------$6,800

The Everglades stretch fifty miles wide but only inches deep - a labyrinth of mangrove waterways and sawgrass marshes. Sawgrass can easily slash skin with its sharp barbs. That afternoon the water began to present itself in its own rhythm, seemingly solid, then fluid again. Lily pads, like jagged islands, provided a strange kind of beauty. I manipulated photographs on my computer to integrate the images with my impressions of this subtropical wilderness.

Above the Fruited Plain 25"X40"-------9,500 (SOLD)

This aerial view of a festival reminds me of looking down upon grain and fruit fields from above. The painting is part of series that explores grids - expressing the complex and unexpected relationships of the smaller parts to the whole. I divided a collage into a contiguous arrangement of sections to use as reference. I painted the movement and vitality of the festival by playing whites against darks and adding dashes of vibrant color.

Juror Comments (Best Work on Paper Award)

William S. Lieberman, Metropolitan Museum of Art:
"It's so nice to see something very and unabashedly happy."

Barbara Haskell, Whitney Museum of Art:
"I like the exuberant energy of this work and the detail. It's very inventive."

Arches Beach 22"X30" ------- $7,500

A multitude of colored rocks, smooth round orbs, cover Arches Beach on the coast of Newfoundland. We stood at the water's edge, listening to the rattling sound of waves rolling in and out, clicking the colored pebbles together. Years of grinding reduced the coarse rocks into polished, satiny balls. Sheep grazed on the grass surrounding the rock beach. Driftwood, influenced by the current, scattered red-orange slivers across the shoreline. I painted what I saw.

Dark Blue Ferry on Ice 22"X30" ------ $3,800

A ferry, represented in this painting by the dark blue shape, hit an iceberg and sank off the coast of Newfoundland. All the passengers saved themselves by evacuating onto the iceberg. I was on that same ferry a year before watching ice floes in the distance dotted with black birds. I used pale washes to tell of the crystallized nature of the ice sparkling in the sun and dark, ultramarine blue to describe the ill-omened ferry and its reflection.

Transformation 22"X30" ----------- $4,800

In full sun, the pristine white paper on my easel flooded with light. Shadows covered portions like ominous clouds in a thunderous sky. Images like these in my immediate surroundings shock me. I try to remember in those fleeting moments to open my eyes and catch ordinary objects transforming into the color and texture of honey. I poured dark paint onto my paper watching for shapes to emerge from the light. I played in the wet shadows like a child in a rainstorm.

Against the Rising Tide 22"X30" ----------$2,500

Pure "thalo" green spreads unevenly in wet paint and gives a shimmering gem-like quality to the ripples of water in this demonstration. I paint symbols of what I directly experience - an abstract distillation of subjects that attract me with their patterns, shapes and colors. In the studio, I'm immersed in the process of making a painting, pulling together the images to create a whole. That absorbing process is the reward.

Floating Whites 22"X30" ------------$3,700

An opposition of forces that occurs often in my painting is the small bits of the world made as big as the universe. In this demonstration, an avalanche of light springs from a zone of darkness bringing spirited flowers into close-up view making them larger than life. I applied wet into wet washes and hard edge glazing to loosely define the high energy petals - quick silver edges playing lost and found with the dark.

Roars and Foam 22"X30" ---------------$5,500

I sat for a long while watching the Yellowstone River roar and foam through a complicated yellow light. The meaning of stillness and whispers vanished. Allowing all my senses to gather information, I prepared to capture a moment in time on paper. To express the river's movement and energy, I used a drybrush technique to show the turbulent water splashing against the rocks. In contrast, the cool, ever-green trees softly blend on wet paper.

Juke Box 25"X40"----------------$6,500

The colored lights of the juke box extended across the blue night sand - merging sight and sound. Even as a teenager at Myrtle Beach in the 50's, I noticed the vivid colors, the rhythm of lights and shadows blending with shapes angular and soft. The visual elements mingled with the music to make the sounds visible. In this painting, grays mixed with three primary colors and applied to wet paper slightly separate to bravely speak of color again.

Continuum 22"X30" --------------$5,500

While walking in a field of red poppies, the continuous pattern totally surprised me. Flowers, buds, leaves and stems flung color all the way to the edges of the field as if caught and held inside a kaleidoscope. The mirrored colors stretched out in all directions. I watched the mosaic pattern produce a continuum that seemed to extend beyond its boundaries - beyond reasonable possibilities - each individual poppy playing a part in the continuum.

Gallery 4

Flowers in Midstream 25"X40"-----------$4,800

Orchids, with a ring of octopus-like tentacles, drop from their growing place into the swift current below -- a "performance art" corsage. The orchids, the color of tangerines, occupy a spirited, blue-green stage strewn with the fullness of summer. They perform with the energy of a heart beat and take my breath away. I try to keep myself open to their possible meaning. Their performance reveals their filigree and scrollwork beauty joining forces with an underlying struggle barbed with irregularities. My performance in making the painting began with a vigorous use of my brush. I splashed volatile watercolor to form the crisp edges like when rain comes and washes away air pollutants and we can finally see. Freewheeling brushstrokes of cobalt blues and transparent greens provide action in the stream -- the watercolor paint actually sliding on the wet paper seeming to propel the orchids downstream.

Great Sunbursts of Flaring Spangles 25"X40" ----------------------------------$15,500 (SOLD)

To assemble my paintings, I select from the endless supply of visual relationships existing in the world -- all swapping stories of shapes and colors. I like to keep an eye on things. For example, my investigation of a sense of place revealed rooms of architectural rhythms. I found vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines converging to form white columns -- symbols of purpose and permanence in an otherwise fleeting existence. I came to the building late in the day. The sun fiercely poured its rays onto the planet's crust like a majestic oven. The hot sunbursts forged the intervals of light into pie-shaped columns covered in white meringue. My eyes filled to their limit with warm light. I painted the flaring red, orange and yellow spangles with layers of warm, cadmium colors. This painting won a top award in a national exhibition. City National Bank purchased the painting.

Pack Ice 22"X30" ---------------------$4,500

Red Bay, Labrador, is the farthest north one can drive on the east coast of the North American Continent. The dusty road ends at the same point where the red line ends on my map. Someone should have cried out "Last stop! Last stop!" When I looked beyond that last remote house at the end of the road, my eyes looked past raw rock and desolate tundra, the color of avocados, and slipped onto the pack ice. Standing on the edge of the continent, I witnessed the solid ice, like a ground vapor, stretching endlessly all the way to the North Pole. Huge ice floes spun and scattered in the current, like heaps of marshmallow cream. When pack ice breaks up, it doesn't melt slowly. The ice rips out of its holding place and tears down river, opening the waterways to navigation. In a sea of black and blue, the towers of ice floated by with bases of pale blues and sides of mint green. Jutting rocks popped their heads up like surfacing Humpback Whales. For this painting, I scanned a photograph into my computer. With a little tinkering, I reconfigured the composition, moved shapes, cropped edges and brightened colors. I painted wet into wet, allowing the mint green of pack ice to course across the paper.

Kinetic Against a Blue Sky 22"X30"--------$3,500

A friend, living in Japan, sent me a photograph of exotic maple leaves against a foreign blue sky. The leaves performed a kinetic dance -- twisting and turning in currents of air. As I walked in my own southern backyard that afternoon, I looked up into the trees to see the same kinetic image as the photograph taken so many miles away. Sometimes I forget to notice. This time I painted the Carolina blue sky beaming through yellow-orange maple leaves in celebration of the almost overlooked. To show the wind moving the leaves in a spatial environment, I first wet the paper leaving spots and dashes dry for the leaves. My brush, sopping with blue, swirled paint into the sky. Orange, yellow, and red brushstrokes formed halos around the leaves making them seem like shimmering Kabuki dancers.

On the Open Cliff 25"X40"----------------$11,500

OBlack Elk, a holy man of the Oglala Sioux, in 1930, told of Wounded Knee, Pine Ridge and his vision. "In my vision," he said, "where all the land was green, and I could hear the winds from all over the universe, a mighty flowering tree grew -- blue, white, scarlet, yellow. The bright rays from these flashed to the heavens. It was so beautiful nothing anywhere could keep from dancing. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can see buried a people's dream. My nation is in despair. My prayer is that my nation also behold my vision where they can live and prosper." In this painting, I marked with wax crayons to show the bright colored rays flashing to the heavens. Washes of watercolor blend on paper and the salt adds texture to a people's dream. The figure, placed on the left, on the "high hill of his old age," beholds his vision of dancing. On the cover of Kakalak poetry book.

Polar Bear Express 22"X30"------------$6,500

The Polar Bear Express begins its wilderness trek where the road ends -- as far as one can drive in Ontario, Canada. It rumbles on a lonely track, on a gut-level basis, pushing desperately through scrub brush and muskeg 200 miles north to James Bay. At the end of the line, at Moosenee, a Cree Indian named Freddie took us to Moose Factory Island in his canoe. On the island, I crawled inside a teepee just large enough for two people. A native woman cooked bannock over an open fire. She wrapped the dough snugly around a stick and pressed the stick into the ground tilting it toward the fire. When the bread baked to a wheat-field brown, she carefully wrapped it in aluminum foil and handed it to me. I felt the teepee, the woman and the bread strangely primal and familiar. There are many things I can't explain. After scanning a photograph of two polar bears onto my computer, I enhanced the colors and moved the shapes for a better composition. I added bannock on sticks as floaters around the polar bears. The hard-edged red, black and white lines represent the ominous tracks of the Polar Bear Express. I used the resulting print-out as reference and made further changes as I painted.

White Water Lily 22"X30"------$8,500 (SOLD)

I'm interested in changing an image from a preconceived concept to something unexpected and fresh. I want to push the vision beyond the surface of ordinary appearances. In this painting, the water lily, like white birds huddled together with feathers ruffled, seems eager to awaken our senses. In the transparent, early morning light, shadows elongate. They create a harshness of light-dark contrast over the lake. Shadows have an extraordinary way of looking at the light. The abundance of bullfrog-green pads and crisp stems vibrate -- vigorous individuals chit-chatting like a pattern of cracked ice. It is impossible to hush. I applied layers of paint, glazing to define the frayed edges of swampy vegetation that looms, then unexpectedly disappears. Bought by Novant Health.

Flowers in a Basket 22"X30" ----------$8,500

This painting overflows with pleasant, old-fashioned sentimentality, tripping the light fantastic with humor and sharp-witted edges. I gathered the milk-white dogwood and the crystal-pink azaleas sunning themselves outside my studio. I plunked the blossoms into a basket lovingly woven by my mother ....nostalgia being created on the spot. The still life linked me to my private memories of beginnings and family history. Catch the memories if you can. Some of the flowers gather closely together, overlap and present themselves as a unit. Others stand apart as individuals. In the studio, my students and I painted directly from the subject. We paid attention to the movement of the dogwood, repeating a white pattern like blobs of homemade ice cream. I wet the paper and painted the background first, allowing some of the blues to extend into the petals. I defined the sharp edges by glazing -- reversing positive and negative space. The tender pinkness of the azaleas dishes out the softness.

Murex 22"X30"---------------------$6,500

Diane Ackerman wrote, "Both science and art have a habit of waking us up, turning on all the lights, grabbing us by the collar and saying 'Would you please pay attention!' " I carefully watched the wind and water recreating the beach knowing the details of form and movement cannot be seen otherwise. An empty shell, its contents devoured by predatory sea-creatures -- dinner partners one and all, gripped the sand rivulets like a candy-pink, silk glove. Life's experiences influence a painter's approach. Holding this murex shell to feel its bulges and indentions helps my students discover it's life and central nature before starting to paint. What we see, touch, hear, smell, and taste tells us about our subject. In this demonstration, I began by wetting the entire paper with clear water. I brushed the blues into the background in swaths of finger-like strokes. The strokes repeat the spiny shapes of the shell's outer edges. I allowed the paint to run and move to catch the shell in swirls of ultramarine blue water. To show the complexity and volume of the shell, I sculpted each small, bulbous section separately, painting the edges in a darker value.

Gorge 25"X40" -------------6,600

While backpacking in the Linville Gorge, I felt the enormity and power of the waterfall and its rock understructure. The water cascaded far below gradually peeling back the layers of the rock monolith. The sound rippled out in all directions, sometimes booming, sometimes like a cradle song but mainly the falls consisted of shimmering -- the sight and sound mesmerizing. A friend surprisingly announced that years earlier her mother's foot slipped on the wet rocks that gleamed with emerald colored moss, and she tumbled down the waterfall into the gorge. I watched the ominous water plunge continuously over the edge -- dynamic, restless. It poured relentlessly, pursuing the repetitive task of falling. There was no stillness. I mixed three primary colors to form a gray. I painted the luminous grays allowing them to cascade down the paper. As the neutral color hit the wet paper, the red, blue, and yellow separated to show a subtle resemblance of the primary mixture.

Gallery 5

Coconuts Illuminated 22"X30"---------------$6,800

White sunlight in the Florida Keys flashes bits of razzmatazz colors like a mirrored ball on a dance room floor. Like translucent wings, the colors fling themselves against the white stucco walls and illuminated coconuts, then flit around the corner and out of sight.
I seek to show the unexpected tendency of things. I like to catch the subject at its height of laughter. I want my paintings to tell you more than I know.

Train Yard 22"X30"--------------------$5,800

In the train yard, steel structures carve out their shapes in the starry night sky. I could imagine movement of some distant train shaking the air molecules all around it. Then molecules next to them begin to tremble and so on down the track. They quiver through forests and tunnels, over elaborate bridges and rivers, all the way to the station and up the lacy high structure before me. The atoms on the frame-work break into millions of geometric shapes like the fiery, flaming eyes of tigers.
I dropped white gouache from my brush into wet blue paint. The blobs form the liquid stars that cover the paper like a chenille spread. The surprise development of the painting delighted me.

Egyptian Excursion 25"X40"--------------$9,800

The pyramids rose like islands in the drifting sand. When we declined the offer from a white-robed Egyptian to mount camels and be carried to the pyramids, we had to trek across the immense desert on foot. Ahead of us, our children swayed atop a dusty hump like wise men moving toward the big-shot triangles of immortality in the distance. It seemed I was not moving forward except for some invisible life line pulling me along. Sand buckled under my feet. I seemed engaged in a crossing without end.
The journey connected me to my process of painting. My paintings first involve me, then seem to take off without me, pulling me along by some invisible life line. My paintings sometimes unfurl themselves step by step, leaving me behind to catch up later.

Among the Vegetation 22"X30"------------$5,500

From a late Fall garden, earthbound gourds evoke a beauty and sadness that marks the end of the growing season. Ironically they display their organic shapes as if primordial beginnings were their ultimate goal.
I try to pay attention to what's at hand and to find a quality that belongs just to that subject. Organic gourds. The colors of maple syrup, gingerbread, mahogany and boiled tea. It all signifies the earth is solid and strong and has a resilient sense of itself.
The painting is on hand-made Royal Watercolor Society paper, made in England. The paper's gratifying texture and absorbency make an ideal surface for applying the wet-into-wet washes.

Mountain Leaves 22"X30"--------------$6,000

Loose layers of oak, shagbark hickory, birch and maple leaves crunched beneath our feet like percussion instruments. Once in a while, a smell of sweet, musty perfume nibbled at our senses. A revelry of brittle scarlets, saffron yellows, organic oranges and rusty, cinnamon browns caught us by surprise. The spirited leaves proved the courage of their old age with brilliant crisp edges.
The path is always unpredictable much like painting in watercolor. In this demonstration at a workshop in the North Carolina mountains, I added visual textures by scraping, spattering, spraying water and sprinkling salt. I watched while washes ran into each other, colors separated and water spots appeared like unexpected gifts.

Pink Water Lilies 22"X30"----------------$5,400

On hot, humid days, pink Water Lilies rise from the early morning mist like a fluid mirage. Repeated petal shapes link us from left to right. Reflections, rippling out to seek similarities, link us from top to bottom. The links remind us that all things are connected. Whatever happens to nature happens to us.
Although the flow of paint in the initial watercolor wash is loosely applied, I maintained control at the edges by glazing. The result is a continuum of links stretching outward and flowing back much like our own influences on ourselves.

Sunset Lilies 22"X30"-------------------$7,000

As the sun resolved another day, the stealth of pink caught me unaware. It shrieked at the coming of the night. Even in the shadows there was no absolute freedom from light. Looking for the Purple Gallinule, I could only imagine seeing his iridescent purple chest, bright shield on his forehead, yellow legs and red bill with a yellow tip. With the bright reflections bouncing the sky back to itself, it was easy for even a neon blue bird, the colors of a peacock, to be illusive. I probably never saw the Gallinule. But as Kurt Vonnegut wrote, "If this isn't nice, what is?"

Sifted 25"X40"-----------------$7,500

I like to invent images or symbols in which the viewer senses an abstract concept. In this painting, I connect shapes, colors, textures and movement to the idea of sorting and sifting information. I painted a cloth, sack-like container to serve as a gate-keeping sieve, saving the likable bits of information and throwing the rest away.
During the process of making and building the forms, I allowed the paint mixture to separate thus portraying subtleties and nuances so typical of complex information. Often in the process of painting, I come to realize that the painting knows more than I do. I try to watch, listen and pay attention to it.

Colonnades 22"X30"---------------$6,800

The Leaning Tower of Pisa shimmers on the edge of extinction. The Romanesque colonnades vault against the sky already resembling the fossilized rib cage of a prehistoric creature. A thin facade of marble creates ambiguous forms and spaces that allow some latitude on how we read them. A leaning tower and a prehistoric rib cage all at once -- showing us a two-in-one image.
To create the texture of the bell tower and the sense of ancient bones, I allowed drops of water to attack the pigment and push it. This technique formed edges created by the water and paint evaporating.

Banana Tree 22"X30"-----------$6,500

Powerful Caribbean night-blues machete their way through giant banana leaves. I'm just an observer, watching the evolving tangles of gnarled lime trees and strangler figs crisscross themselves -- overcome by becoming.
I singled out a banana tree, growing organically in a fertile garden, for its dramatic shading and shapes. It surprised me with its lizard greens and sun bleached yellows.
The painting, too, grew organically from the first pencil marks. During the painting process, the painting grew from the known to a place unknown and uncharted -- gaining strength from the accumulation of colors and textures.

Gallery 6

In Plain Sight 22"X40" -----------------$8,600

On the plains, much of the terrain is stretched and flat and seemingly holds nothing more than stones and bushes under an empty sky. The horizontal lines and sameness of features produce a calming effect that can put us to sleep as we drive mile after mile. But a closer look reveals a mystifying collection of surfaces and shapes, colors and materials. In this painting, the eye immediately interprets the horizontal direction as a serene landscape; yet, it also suggests possibilities for discovering treasures.

In the Studio 25"X40" ----------------$7,800

The days pile up in the studio like the many images produced on paper. One day while standing at my easel about to pile images onto the white surface, I suddenly glimpsed the monumental central shape and great structural force of the easel. I focused on a single time and place. Black Elk believed that anywhere could be the center of the universe. I saw its center again in the afternoon when a ray of sun poured across my paper.

Common Loon 22"X30" -------------$12,000

I felt a connection with this water bird the first time I heard her haunting wails in the night. By day, her luminous body rides low in the water, bearing a checkered cloth across her back; the black and white squares assemble side by side like a crossword puzzle. A white garland at her throat falls into the sun as she arches her arabesque neck. Where does a loon go when the sun coasts downward on cobalt wings and light surrenders its vermilion to the inky night? She slips into her shadowy nest near water's edge and calls with that ancient yodeling that sinks us back into ourselves. I started the design with the large, bold shapes first. Then added the details of feathers and vegetation. Combining what I saw with my scientific thinking and my intuition, I painted my impression of the loon.

Nations 22"X30" 15,500 (SOLD)

I invent my paintings from derivations of things I've seen or remembered. This painting is based on the idea that nations are made of individual people exploring their uniqueness and yet, at the same time, acting as a unit to create a society. Grouping the small individual shapes across this painting, I show a large city that is compact with structures and inhabitants. We can see the small shapes of buildings and the unit of the city simultaneously. I enjoy creating my art on a unique path that is unexplored by anyone else.

New Phase 25"X40" --------------$8,500

I painted this because I wanted to show you what it is like standing on the side of the street, watching the parade pass by. The compelling images and sensations of one spirited, light-hearted festival float give the impression of umbrellas, twirling as if on drop spindles. Umbrellas usually shelter us from the world of nature and also stop us from seeing each other or where we are going. But here, the individual parts, altered and arranged, interact to make an unabashedly happy whole image, one that invites us in to participate. A painting needs a structure to hang all the details and pattern on just as a fantasy float needs a structure. A structure allows us to see the whole float while playing among the individual umbrellas.

Ribbons 25"X40"-----------$13,800(SOLD)

Ribbons, the colors of raspberries, lemons and apricots, engage the horizontal, sliding surface of a field, swimming like razzle dazzle reflections across the grasses; they pulsate in the sheer excitement of the medium. I painted an image in which we can sense an object's gravity and respond to its rippling. The repetition implies time and continuity, inviting us to wade out into the unknown to see what's there.

Sticks 22"X30"-----------------$8,700

There is an order to stacking sticks that is as old as our species. Simplicity and the deliberate primitive appearance of the forms present everyday chores as universal and ancient. There is something about treating seemingly mundane things with dignity and respect that makes them special in our lives. I've learned to look for old familiar colors in unexpected places. By studying the complexity of bark and how it protects the life of the tree, I created an order and rational space to transform an every day object into possibilities. The box composition fits the orderliness of stacked sticks very well, the essential structure needed since our time began and we began to build fires for our own survival. This painting was selected for the San Diego National Exhibition.

Paraphrased Zebras 25"40"-----------$9,600

When lions attack, zebras band together to protect themselves. When the lions chase the zebras, all they see as they run beside the herd is a blur of black and white. In this blur of pattern, the lions cannot distinguish one zebra from the other. Since the zebras are not as fierce as their counterparts, they relay on a visual illusion to fool the lions into thinking they are one large mass. I wanted to show the zebras from the lions' point of view. This phenomenon is disturbing to the lions, but delightful to us.

Rhubarb 22"X30"-----------------$8,000

I painted the rhubarb because I saw one at the grocery store and couldn't take my eyes off of it for a couple of minutes. My eyes awakened and there I was teaming with visual note taking. What a combination of fiercely loyal reds and greens that stared me down, daring me to blink and look away. I came in close for a better look, like peering through a powerful microscope. I found some surprising ingredients. Imagine a chain of explosions expanding, the cells dividing in unison. Yes, when I painted my newfound subject, I exaggerated the colors, magnified the patterns and filled the picture to the brim.

Transformed Coconuts 22"X30"-------------$7,500

Sometimes a thing resonates with something that's already in you and lights you up. This is the way it is on this day as I stand under a coconut tree looking up into the abrupt yellow bodies, huddled together against a backdrop of complex green and purple leaves. This tree is not an empty house. It is filled with birds and insects and crawling creatures. It is all up there, fitting into each other's edges; lives are being born and lived, death is inevitable. I wonder how fast I can move if a coconut snaps, escapes its small world and comes tumbling down, disregarding my theory that nothing exist in any solid form. Would both our shells be cracked open, lying in the plush grass, our thick cries unheard? Is it worth it to witness how they wrestle each other for the life-giving sunlight that burnishes their smooth coverings? How could I dare miss seeing their spotted tentacles intertwine with each other like a woman's tweed scarf? How could I walk away and not record in my sketchbook this creation, high in a tree that lights my way?

Gallery 7

Blue Pond 22"X30"-----------------------7,400

I want my paintings to show the unexpected tendency of things, how surprised we are when cerulean blue stutters over tangled roots, pools into long shadows. I go through the process of painting what I see in a blue pond, how stems continue downward into the world of algae and slime. I also want my paintings to show more than I see. When I add what I know about the subject through research, I stumble upon a new realization, that the slight ripple I feel is a muskrat nibbling a rust-orange rhizome. I envision the unexpected, deep in the murky water, where it all begins and ends, where almost no one ever looks. If I can do that, I'll present an image that comes closer to a truth.

Expedition Into Glass 25"X40"-------------$10,500

In an arrangement of objects, I try to show the relationships between them. I think of it as an expedition. I forage the objects, glean the nuances of shapes, colors and textures. I juxtapose lines and angles; explore the space behind reflections in glass. I like to show the changing ways we see a subject; the movement makes things fresh with a different slant. I feel my painting successful when it somehow reveals a new possibility of looking at the subject.

Garden Wall 25"X40"-----------------------$16,700

I was nearly finished with this garden painting when I saw that the whole garden itself clearly looked like one massive flower coming into full bloom. It expands its petals outward like a pair of wings, bursting forth as if held captive too long. Unbeknownst to me, the painting had become a fractal of the garden, offering a copycat dollop of itself, a snippet imitating its source. Whether we are ready or not, sometimes our creative work, like nature, overwhelms us like a solid being. It tries to go beyond what it was born into, as if it could, abracadabra, become something other than itself.

Monumental Side of the Drift 25"X40"------$9,500

Often a rock structure looks like a monument, pushed up by a volcano, dense against a stronghold of empty space. The straight jagged edges turn an abrupt corner as if needed someplace else. It seems to be here for the duration, picking up bits and pieces of debris like a magpie. I like to think of the patterns on its surface as the rock's winter count, the record of its life. I sit and watch steadily like a rock would do, painting what I see, bearing witness to its layering that seems to hold secrets we once knew but have forgotten. I mark for hours and hours with colored pencils and paint, but still cannot grasp its entire story.

Yellow-Headed Blackbirds 22"X30"-----------$9,700

In a western marsh, yellow-headed blackbirds flit among the grasses like tiny marionettes, whirling and whooping and making periodic stops. Their fragments of color swim over the surface of the grasses that ripple in the breeze. I like finding old familiar colors in unexpected places, intertwining with light and shadow and texture. The movement creates new forms that press against my eyes, reminding me that everything is moving however small or large a movement it is.

Vivid Rides Along the Way 22"X30"------$7,000

I try to make some kind of meaning out of the raw universe. That's what artists and poets do. We search for the place where the senses mingle with the spirit and produce a truth, not the truth, of course, but a truth. I like to make order out of a tangle of lines and colors, organize empty and active space. In this painting, I imagine standing in a space of sanctuary while animated shapes zigzag past, dazzling the room, fitting into each other like interlocking arms. I don't have all the answers to my paintings, or even all the questions. I stumble, then get back on the path, then stumble again. As if I were a child at play, I am venturing into the unknown; I am not running a shuttle bus to a known location. Therefore, I encourage you, the viewer, to interpret the painting in your own way. My wish is to be a catalyst for you to find your own rhythmic passage and together we might stumble on a truth.

Inukshuks 22"X30"---------------------$8,300

Inukshuks are route markers. The Inuits stack stones in the frozen tundra to mark the way. To the Inuit hunter, everything radiates from his center and is the most spectacular thing for the moment. His sled carries him toward the route marker, his seal-skin wrap shelters him, and the huskies are his companions. His small complete world is the center of the universe from which he conducts business and keeps safe. He knows that life at this moment is depending on his knowledge of the details. There is a great human capacity to forage the world and glean scraps of what we need to survive and flourish. Like the Inuit hunter crossing the ice, an artist explores, gathers, fights and finds knowledge and intuition in the details. In this painting of an inukshuk, I've added the accumulative details that directed me to this point where I formulate the art on paper.

Susan's Tulips 22"X30"------------------$7,600

When Susan found a vase at a potter's studio in Hawaii and tulips in a Japanese market, she arranged a perfect balance between a man-made object and nature. I painted a paraphrased version of her story, blending the glazes on the vase with the textures and colors in the petals. I love painting in order to pass stories on. I like to know they continue to twist and change as each person views the painting. Susan initiated her unique vision of the relationship between humans and nature and how we seize opportunities to merge them. I continue the story in a painting and you continue the story through your own understanding. Each of us interprets a painting or story a little differently, much like storytellers have done for generations.

Undersea Pirouette 22"X30"----------$8,000

I think of the many creatures in the undersea community of corals, sponges, clusters of barnacles and pale crustaceans...all living their symbiotic relationships with each other. Snails feed on coral, which offers hiding places from predators, and in return for the space it provides, the abalone finds a natural camouflage. I painted a sea anemone that seems to sink her feet into cashmere slippers as she bobs and dances against a sunburst of light. Hands thrown into the air in a pirouette, she performs semaphores with her flaying arms, directing a clown fish that sails in on the wings of a pin shell. I've noticed that underlying what seems to be a choreographed ballet is sometimes a desperate need to survive.

GALLERY 8

Celebration With Feathers and Sash 22"X30" ----------------------------------$14,500 (SOLD)

.In many cultures, people perform ceremonial dances for a myriad of purposes. Some dance for rain, others for abundance of food or just in celebration. I wanted to paint the spirit of these festive dancers, to show their movement and colors, how they throw their arms into the air like slung rainbows. I just get out of the way while the painting develops, bushwhacks its way through sights, the colors of raspberries and tropical birds and sounds of jackals and doves. All we artists have to do is follow, allow the painting to go on ahead of us and try to understand this place it reveals to us.

Cold Bow Snap 25"X40"----------------$8,500

In this painting, snow, shadows and rocks reaffirm the boundaries of their space. Light and dark are neatly bundled and tied in distinct separations; there is no room for the subtleties of middle value. Winter in snow is decisive, a place where the facts are laid out hard and cold. We call our brains gray matter, but oh how we long for the distinct categories, how we strive to make things black and white. This, then, is the place I want to take the viewer, the place where pieces fit together when we stand back for an overview. This is the place where we say we know about light and dark; we know about the boundaries of this space if only within this framework, if only for this moment.

Cheering the Hero 25"X40"-----------$12,000(SOLD)

This unexpected view of a torso, its shapes organic, shows its isolation in the faceless world of man-made, geometric shapes. Yet, a passionate application of wax crayon and salt infuses the surfaces with deliberate rough texture that bonds them together. It's about connected detachment. Most importantly, she's having a good time preserving her intuitive, artistic nature, taking a brave stand against the technical society surrounding her and incorporating her creativity into it.

Coastal Fog 25"X40"---------------------$8,000

We cannot say New Brunswick is lusterless although I see fog covering its coast in a gauzy shroud. I know the rocks are there. I get a glimpse of them swallowing the fog as it moves over their surfaces, permeates the crevices of their skins. A salamander appears and disappears. We can tell a lot about our surroundings by what reflects from the eye of a salamander. In this place, nothing reflects but more fog. Fog against fog. I esteem this other world that I seldom encounter where I have to imagine what is right in front of me. Although I notice how the details flee, leaving the fog to dose on the ground like a deathwatch, I can easily slip past the illusive monsters, see what I want to see. An artist keeps moving forward, going to places no one has ever been before. I invite you to look at my paintings through your own imagination, see what you can see.

Fun Forks 25"X40"------------------$6,800

Having fun with eventful surfaces is a passion of mine. Using a brush allows me to express a very direct sense of my personal hand; glazes that overlap and weave varied surfaces together bring a raw energy, which adds even more to the sense of expectancy.
This painting with its carved-backed chairs and playful forks represents the activity surrounding many meals at the same table, a sort of time-lapse photography point of view that encompasses the past, the present and anticipates future fun gatherings.

Oil and Filaments 22"X30"------------------$8,500

Oil and water on pavement catch the sun, spiral endlessly like can-can dancers in full swing, filled with the whirling and tizzy that beginnings bring. My job as an artist is to observe visual connections and find a sanctuary in the conflict of opposites. I know if I'm just caught up in the excitement of beginnings, instead of pushing through the hard work for resolution, I'll forever be starting something new. It's about digging out the details, then standing back to see an overview where opposing parts, like oil and water, synchronize. I depend on the act of painting the oil and filaments to reveal the observations I make.

Rhododendron Light 22"X30"---------------$8,300

There's nothing subtle about a Rhododendron in full bloom. Every snippet of color vies for attention. It's the rhythmic bounce of sunlight that passage through reds and greens I find gratifying. Shapes easily move from behind a petal to the top surface of a leaf, and then disappear. Light and shadow fit into each other like reflections in a mirror, and then fall through cracks between stems. I like to turn the flower over to look underneath. If we don't look with all our senses, how are we going to see the other side? I feel so lucky to have this opportunity to merge with nature and see this running-over of pattern. The next time I look at a Rhododendron, I'm sure I'll see deeper into the lives of things. That's how it goes. The more we look, the better we see a summary of all the moving parts, the better we can see the life tucked between the folds of petals.

Token Gateway 25"X40"-----------------$15,000

Sometimes a painting simply tells us about the subject; just shows us its amazing self. It shows us the arch shape, standing like a curio cabinet filled with trinkets the colors of raspberries, oranges and limes. Other times a painting is a metaphor and stands in for an idea less concrete. A painting can also do both, at the same time, on different levels. When it tells us about the visual order of an arch, we have an opportunity to step out of our lives and examine where we are, which trinkets are ours. Actually, I think any view is valid that sweeps in and turns on the lights. I learn much when a person interprets my paintings with a different point of view than I have in mind. This gives me even more ways to tinker with lights and ideas.

Magnolias 22"X30"------------------$8,500

Deal me in whenever there is a subject that allows all the senses to experience it. A Magnolia is one of those subjects that hold surprise ingredients for all our senses. They have a strong, sensual flavor about them that is all their own; touch the eggshell texture of a petal; smell the scent of creamy sweetness; the stamen, hear them fall intensely into the cupped petals as if they were gold trinkets; see the crimson fruit, pods the color of lipstick, how boldly they burst open to release their seeds. Great red pods crunch under foot as you take shelter beneath the porch of the Magnolia's great limbs. Reveled through our senses, a magnolia tree, with its blossoms like soft dollops of sea foam and its glossy, dark-green leaves reflecting the sky, bears an air of detachment and empathy at the same time.

Garden Gate 22"X30"---------------$7,300

An overgrown garden is a challenge to the gardener and the painter. I look around and accept the challenge to bushwhack my way through. I wanted to make order from chaos in this garden that has a mind of its own. The remarkable thing about this garden is its path. It has no beginning, no end. It tangles among the vegetation, the threadlike vines, the knots in bark, and the texture of lichens. I collect the complex codes and arrange them around a garden gate. I know my job at this moment is to see something that others pass by, see into the depth of the garden, see behind the leaves, see the insets crawling, see the visual chorus of bustling activity, although I don't hear a peep.

Camellias 22"X30"---------------$6,900

Aldous Huxley wrote, "It's extraordinarily therapeutic just looking into the hearts of primroses and anemones. For the rest of the day, I see no maggots." I look into the hearts of camellias; examine their seasons of buds and seedpods. I want my paintings to rise out of an understanding of what it would be like to live as my subject. At first, I'm not sure what I've seen; the components constantly change. The more I sketch, the more I slow down and notice that all the petals are not perfect like pictures in a plant catalogue. Quite a few are torn open, perhaps by an insect, or the nibbling of a passing caterpillar. In my paintings, I want to invite the viewers to come along with me into this natural world. I know if I look into the heart of nature long enough, I begin to realize it is a fascinating world, one that refreshes and stimulates. Every species has its own unique way of giving birth, living, reproducing, surviving and dying. I hope to present an opportunity for the viewer to be immersed in nature, dig deep for everything: colors, shapes, decay, luminosity, gnawing, and want more.