"Koi and Parrot" (acrylic on stretched linen; 22" x 28")

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To shake things up a bit, this spring I am taking an abstract painting class with Deanna Schwartzberg at the Art League School in Alexandria, VA. Creativity and play are the key to the class. I am having so much fun!

During the second class, I painted "Koi and Parrot". Koi and a parrot? Why not? Believe it or not, at the beginning I had a musical theme in mind with a drum, violin, and flutes! Somehow koi shapes began to emerge. Someone found the parrot during the critique session and it became my favorite part of the whole colorful painting. I love the stare of the parrot and the swimming movement of the koi!

"Fall Patterns" (acrylic on paper; 15" x 11") sold

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Do you like Wolf Kahn, a great colorist?  His calendar hanging in my office claims on the back that he is "probably the foremost American colorist."  Whether you agree with it or not, I surely love his semi-abstract art.  But I don't have the courage to paint with his bright yellows, mauves, aquamarines, pinks, and scarlets.  If I dare, my teachers would probably admonish me to tone them down to more "natural" colors.  Perhaps only masters, such as Kahn, can truly follow their aesthetic choices.

In "Fall Patterns", however, I hear the echos of Wolf Kahn.  Have you ever seen the violet fall foliage?  Why is the ground under the tall trees burgundy, or the sky so chalky Naples yellow?  But the painting works, and one feels that it is fall and the leaves are changing colors.  I don't know what got into me to paint like that, but surely like to do it again.

"High and Mighty" (acrylic collage on paper, 11" x 7 1/2") sold

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You might be surprised to learn that the woman walking the dogs in this semi-abstract collage is the super model Kate Moss.  Or could you tell that from her strutting gait?  I had a lot of fun assembling the pieces of paper painted in acrylic and gluing them onto the support of watercolor paper in Susan Herron's class at the Art League School in Alexandria, VA.

In Susan Herron's class, several years of painting clicked and I finally began to see and paint like a real artist.  She is one of the most generous and innovative teachers whom I had the good fortune to meet.  Despite some personal tragedies, she continues to be a warm, positive human being and popular teacher.  I may have never attended an art college, but will hesitate to call myself a self-taught artist.  I have had numerous influences--direct and indirect--in my art education, and Susan has been one of the former.  Thank you.

"Evening Walk in Dublin" (mixed media on paper, 14" x 10") sold

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The scene is Dublin in sunset.  The mood is dreamy.  The technique--definitely pointillist.  The painting won the Best in Show in The Art League monthly show in 1996.  When I heard the news, I almost fell off the chair, because I had never been accepted in a juried show, not alone won an award.  The beginner's luck!

This piece is the first decent painting I have ever created.  When I started painting, I chose colored pencil, because it felt least intimidating.  In Pat Barron's class at the Art League School in Alexandria, VA , there were some students who were working on the paper first painted in watercolor.  So I emulated them.  Pat complemented me on the palette I had chosen--orange, green, and violet, saying that it was a classic triad of secondary colors. 

At that time, I didn't know a darned thing about colors.  Now I look at the body of my work, I see a great deal of these three colors, as if I was born color-coded with oranges, greens, and violets.  Interesting.  Pat no longer teaches; she has retired and moved.  I hear her health is failing.  She was one of my first art teachers and I am grateful to her.  The painting is dedicated to Pat Barron.