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Just before COVID sent us into lockdown I completed a series focused on the Colonial Williamsburg Interpreters and a week into the show, it closed due to the lockdown and the gallery owner opted to go into retirement and closed. Then my mother died. Not from COVID but at age 84 decided she was done with living. It took me a while to realize that she was someone I always had tried to impress with my art work. Not having her around to consult and share my progress was, to say the least, a harsh shock to my motivation to paint. And so I didn’t. For an entire year. 

Then, I took a plein air class with Thomas Bradshaw and it kicked me back into action. I had so much fun and realized I had something to say about landscapes. But then I got a call from a nearby gallery asking me to do a solo show (my first) focusing on my figure painting. I had been having some limited success with paintings of family members and decided to call the show “Women & Children: Moments in Time.” Right before the show, there was a huge fire in the town across the street from where the gallery was located and while the gallery survived, it had some cosmetic damage on the front. Unfortunately, the section of town that burnt to the ground was a big draw for their foot traffic. While I knew figures tend not to sell as well as other genres, I was disappointed that there were NO sales. But there were a couple of positives: I have been invited to do two more solo shows!

So, in early 2024 I will be presenting landscapes. In preparation my husband and my dog and I will be traveling from coast to coast this year. I will be completing a good number of small plein air studies (maybe a few complete paintings) and collecting a whole bunch of reference photos. I want to focus on farms, farmers, farm equipment, farm animals and how things have changed and are changing. I also want to lean further into limited palette and tonal work. 

In fact, I’ve already started by going back and scouring thousands of reference photos for those focusing on farms and tractors. 

I will be posting my work as I go along and will include more information about the shows as we get closer to the dates.