I remember my first interest in drawing coming in the first grade. My teacher, Mrs. Baumgartner, was a scary soul: she could wither your self-confidence with a steely glance! But I wanted to draw a picture of a battleship in class, so I bravely came forward during a snack time and asked her for paper and pencil.

To my surprise and relief she happily gave me the items, and with a victorious smirk I returned to my seat and drew that big boat. I’ve been drawing and painting ever since. One of my paintings was selected to be included in the 2001 Arts for the Parks national competition top 100 (out of 2400 entrants) paintings. The top 100 toured galleries and museums across the country for a year.

I did a portrait of the child of an actress in Days of Our Lives, and sent it to her. She was so excited she commissioned me to do a portrait of her, her husband and her baby together! We got to go to Hollywood and present it to her in person and tour the set.

A wild animal theatre group commissioned me to paint a picture of their two young mountain lions. It was to help raise money for taking care of all the critters, We made tee shirts and sweat shirts with the painting image on them: they sold out! Also we auctioned off the painting to a happy buyer.

About a month ago I entered an international online contest put on by Gallery 4%, a New York gallery. I won second prize with a cash award for my moose painting! I have also been blessed to win other online recognition.

These days I specialize in wildlife and domestic animal paintings in pastel. In all my work I seek to capture the marvelous beauty of God’s creation.