Making marks on paper has been for me been a lifelong passion and process. My mother (who had studied at Parsons in the 1940’s) was my first teacher. She encouraged me and my seven younger siblings to “find something to do” in the “playroom.” This light-filled space, with one wall of windows and another on which my father installed a linoleum-covered workbench, remains to me the perfect studio. Our staple supply was scrap paper (the reverse side of discarded technical documents from my father’s work.) And we also had lots of crayons, pastels, paint, glue, glitter, “good paper,” etc. Somehow despite her household and parenting demands, my mother continued to draw, and paint in watercolor and oils well into her 80’s while her vision started to fail. Today, at almost 95, she is always interested and enthusiastic about the artwork of her eight children, eleven grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren.

My later intermittent formal study has included the Art Students’ League, continuing education classes at the School for Visual Arts, NYU, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and in two artists’ home studios.

I am drawn to watercolor because of its technical possibilities, its transparency and light, its spontaneous appearance (despite careful planning and effort), and the restraint required to achieve a successful image. My aim is to capture the ineffable behind the appearance of landscape, built features, people, and animals. I sometimes paint directly from life, but also photograph what I find beautiful, and then endeavor to render the feeling of the scene in watercolor.