My Journey

 

 

The need to create has been an ever-present, though sometimes unpredictable energy within me. After undergoing brain surgery in 2009, I began compulsively drawing and painting, pushing myself creatively as I’d never done before. Something previously holding me back was no longer present and now at times my desire to create is so strong it is overwhelming. 

 

I began this intense journey by returning to graphite then rapidly adding bits of color. Later I moved to watercolor with ideas of soft landscapes depicting tranquil scenes. What emerged instead were floral portraits, detailed and intense with color but no landscapes were forthcoming. While the flowers were beautiful, I was not achieving my creative goals. 

 

With an adventurous spirit I enrolled in a soft pastel class. That approach turned me into a sponge that day. I listened to the instruciton, fully entered into the artistic space, and produced a frame worthy piece: "Fantasy Sky". Having fallen in love with pastels, I began painting and pushed until I started seeing landscapes in pastel. 

 

I find soft pastel incredibly liberating. As an intuitively controlled artist it pushes me to work larger and more freely, and provides an unrivaled intensity of color. I get lost in the feel of it on my hands as I turn the first gritty marks into a lustrous, buttery blend. Discovering the possibilities of watercolor underpainting, which combines pastel and watercolor on sanded paper that excepts both mediums, is a unique technique that I turn to time and again, in order to capture my creative vision.