I suppose the real story is not why I paint, but why I can't stop painting.  For as long as I can remember, and before, painting has been a part of me.  It is who I am.  I am an Artist.

I was three years old.  It was a beautiful blue day in early summer in East Tennessee.  I stood alone in the sunshine washed field behind my neighbor's house.  I remember picking a beautiful yellow blossom and lifting it to my nose to smell the summer scent of dandelion.  As I looked up from my flower, I noticed my neighbor leaving the basement of her house in her painting smock, the smock that was always covered with splashes of bright colors.  I remembered my Mom talking about our neighbor.   "She is an artist."  Mom said.  As I looked at the "artist", that moment crystalized in my mind, never to leave my memory.  It was the moment when I knew that one day, I, too, would have a smock with brilliant colors splashed on it.  I would be an artist.  From that moment to this, I have never been able to have paper and pen together that I didn't draw.  From my first waking moment to the end of my day, I am gripped by my need to paint.  I can't be outside without feeling that need; like a starving person looking at a buffet of food needs to eat, I need to paint what I see.

I would love to be able to list the vaunted art schools where I honed my craft, the celebrated artists under whom I studied, but that was not the path my life took. Before I was able to become a full time artist, another full time career came my way.  I married at a young age and my first child was born when I was in my freshman year of college majoring in art.  I left school to be a full time Mom.  In the next few years four more little ones arrived to be welcomed into our family's heart and home.  My children kept me busy, but not so busy that I didn't paint.  I painted when the kids took naps. I painted late into the evenings after putting them to bed.  I kept my easel in the playpen when the kids were awake.  I took lessons when I could, but mostly, I just taught myself.  I read books on how to paint and books about artists.  I studied paintings.  I studied the history of art and the movements of art down through the years.  Vincent Van Gogh was a favorite of mine.  He was also a self taught artist.  In the ten years of his career as an artist, he painted 750 paintings or so, and while he was living he sold not a one.  His work sells for millions, now.

Time passed, my children grew up and I was ready to be the Artist of my dreams.  I found representation at my first gallery when we lived in Florida,  JET Gallery of Tampa, Florida.  Through their “Need an Artist” program I recieved commissions in commercial art and architect’s renderings.  Then we moved to my version of heaven on earth, the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina.

In our new home I made the leap to full time artist.  I taught watercolor and oil painting at Blue Ridge Community College and my work was shown in a number of local art galleries.  I informally joined the growing number of online "Daily Artists" and have sold over 500 paintings online.  Recently, my work was showcased in the private gallery of Colton and Groome of Asheville, NC.  I worked with Liz Barr of LA Art Source and provided over fifty pieces for the new Deerfield Building in Asheville.  I am a participating member of the Weaverville NC Artist Association and took part in their most recent Art Safari Studio tour.

I have sold a lot of paintings through the years, to people from all over the United States and Canada.  I have a wonderful studio in the home we built a few years ago in the mountains of Madison County North Carolina, just a few miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway, where I spend my days in the warm embrace of the creative spirit that has been my guide since before I can remember.