About

I paint with watercolors, with oil, and digitally using a Cintiq drawing table with Photoshop. I love it all, and have no favorite method.
I am in love with beauty, color, animals, and humor. Sometimes I want to convey something deep and meaningful with my artwork, and sometimes I just want to be funny.
Most of the time I just want to paint an animal of some kind.
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My Soul

I have been an artist for as long as I can remember. This is me in front of my easel in 1968 - I had just turned seven. Check out my snappy Pleather dress and medallion. And the hula hoop on the floor.

Even then I was painting animals!
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My Cintiq

After seven years, my old Cintiq finally gave up the ghost, so I am getting a new one. (Can I just say how much fun it is to draw on a screen? It's FUN.)
In the photo is a Cintiq 22, but I had to return it because the screen resolution was way less than what I need - it's positively fuzzy compared to my computer.
I am excited to get the Pro version soon, with the 4K screen!
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My Paints

I painted watercolors for many years, but only recently have begun using oils again.
It's so different from everything else I do!
I am learning to become less detail-obsessed and more spontaneous.

I will post some photos here at some point when I get them put together.

Progressions

Click on the owl and check out a gallery of some progressions of my artwork, most done digitally, in Photoshop, on the Cintiq drawing table.
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Substack

This is my Journal over on Substack where I post about whatever I happen to be up to, including my garden, my chickens, my bees, growing and using medicinal herbs, my journey through nutritional health, my occasional poetry, my new artwork, and sometimes about making a huge mess in the house. (I don't just love painting pictures, I also like painting walls, refinishing furniture, and redecorating, sometimes repeatedly.)
I am in love with animals, beauty, truth, and color.

Substack

This will be a different kind of writing, but I am not sure yet exactly how it will manifest. I've changed so profoundly in the last few years that I am at a loss to express it right now. My life has been a very strange journey, and getting stranger. From astrology to the great ongoing Awakening of humanity, life appears to be speeding up. Timelines are shifting. No sooner do I find something I want to write about, it's eclipsed by something bigger. Changes are coming for all of us, big ones, and very soon.

Video

This is a video from 2017, a screen capture of the hen I was creating for my 2018 Chicken Art calendar. It's a bit long, and I changed my mind about the color of the hen, but it's a good representation of how I would build the layers to create a chicken. I have got to do some more videos! (I know, I keep promising this.)

My Cats

Cats I have known and very much loved.
They are a special animal for me and I've lived with them my whole life. It's funny I have hardly ever painted them.
  • Charlie
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    My Charlie, on a summer evening. He lived from 1997-2014. I miss him so much.

  • Pepper
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    My old friend Pepper, coming to say hi to me. She passed away in 2008 at the age of 18.

  • Ginger
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    Ginger likes to communicate telepathically. She was born in 2008.

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    Very young Ginger, curled up with big brother Charlie.

  • Penny
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    Baby Penny, in my lap while I sit at the computer.

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    Penny sniffs the catnip. She had a terrible genetic arthritis condition and only lived for nine years, my heart was broken.

  • Bimbo
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    I named my childhood cat Bimbo. I didn't know what the word meant, I just liked the sound of it!
    This is me holding Bimbo in 1972. He was my constant companion for nineteen years.

    I miss you forever, Bimbo
    1967 - 1986

    Hang Gliding

    I flew hang gliders for fun between 1988-1998. It was a big part of my life, and my daughter's life while she was growing up. Flying taught me so much, especially about fear and self-reliance.
  • Dog Mtn
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    Me launching my Comet glider from the south side of Dog Mountain, Riffe Lake, near Morton, WA circa 1991

  • Tiger Mtn
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    Me launching my Profil glider from Tiger Mountain, Issaquah, WA circa 1993.

  • Chelan
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    July 1993 - Everyone getting set up on top of Chelan Butte, WA for an annual hang gliding XC (cross country) flight competition.

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    They got my name wrong, and I wasn't even in the competition, but I made it into the local Chelan newspaper!

  • Flagstaff
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    1988, Merriam Crater LZ (landing zone), near Flagstaff, Arizona. During a break from the heat my daughter Jen, age 3, happily "flying" - she's an Army helicopter pilot now!

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    Me learning to fly in 1988. This was my first launch at Mingus Mountain, near Jerome, Arizona. I landed in the cactus!
    Note the glider already in the air above me.

    My Garden

    My garden is near and dear to my heart.
    I grew vegetables for many years, now I grow medicinal herbs and other plants, from which I make tinctures and teas for myself and friends.
    Last summer I suddenly decided that I needed beauty and color out there too, and I added a huge number of tulips, peonies, and climbing roses too.

    I can't wait to see them bloom!
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