Most of my life has been spent as a student of the arts, visual, literary and performing.

I don’t write as much as I used to, but then I don’t read as much either.  I was raised in a musical and artistic family so I have played various instruments and sing.  Took dance lessons for many years and used to be a dance teacher into my early thirties.

I have always loved the visual arts and have studied with various artists of my liking rather than taking additional courses in a school.  I never cared for my art classes throughout my student career.  I found the teachers to be to rigid and the class much too structured.  I started going to art shows in the early 70’s and when I found local artists with techniques I liked, I would ask them if they also taught.  Some did and some did not.  One older gentleman sketched beautiful pastel portraits.  I saw him in a few shows and asked him if he taught, he said no and that was that.  I saw him in another show, again he told me he did not want to teach at this time.  Being retired he still had a part-time job and was not interested.  After he was widowed a couple of years later he was at another show and asked me if I was still interested in learning pastels, which I was because there were not many local artists in this medium that were as talented.  He said he had a few other people that were interested and decided to go ahead.  I was so happy!  He was a great teacher and I really learned a lot.  I have not done much pastels lately and wish I had taken pictures of some of my older commissioned work that was given away or sold.  I didn’t used to take my art that seriously, but I would never dream of letting any work go without a number of pictures to add to my portfolio now.

Below is a slide show of a couple of my “homework projects” given when I was first learning.  I have also included a few finished pieces.

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