October 8, 2025

Summer ended with some accomplishments. I was honored to receive a Best of Show award at the Society of Watercolor Artists' Member Exhibition in Fort Worth. The juror was Tim Saternow. I really appreciate his comments about my painting, 'Rosa' Munstead Wood: "This is a virtuosic and flawless painting of a rich red rose. The depth of color and meticulous brushwork, the palpable softness of the petals and leaves, all create a truly brilliant watercolor painting". I'm not sure there could be a kinder compliment about my painting. In September, I also shipped my painting "Four Passions" off to Pennsylvania where it will hang with the Pittsburgh Watercolor Society's Aqueous International Exhibition. Besides, exhibitions, I had the pleasure of doing a demonstration for the Plano Art Association. It was a great time, with such thoughtful questions and great discussions about art. I have several demos scheduled for the end of this year and into 2026. Doing a demo is difficult for me since I paint so slowly. I find that if I complete a lot of the work beforehand, I can show the most important parts of the process. Back in the studio, I'm painting another Farm to Market piece. This one depicts shallots and garlic. It's delicate and pleasurable work. Each bulb is a new discovery of texture, color and form. 

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August 4, 2025

My newest painting is titled "Four Passions".  I think it does a pretty good job of describing how it feels to unexpectedly find something you love. Sometimes when I'm in a rose garden, I kind off drift off to a magical land of beauty. If I put my face really close to a cluster of roses, all I see is the swirl of color. The rest of the world seems to dissipate. That's definitely what happened with these roses. They're named Rosa 'Neil Diamond' after the performer and I found them at the Huntington Rose Garden in California. Now, don't get me wrong here, I am not one of his fans or anything (before my time). But I am a huge fan of these roses. If there was a rose bred for a maximalist quality this might be it. Imagine seeing this rose just as the sun is setting and bees are buzzing. There was this beautiful backlighting going on. The versicolor striping of this rose makes it doubly gorgeous. I had no doubt that rather than putting this rose in my 100 Roses series, it needed to be painted bigger. After a series of sketches and crops and redesigned compositions, I decided to tighten the view so that all you see are the four roses. I want a viewer to feel like they, too, have their nose right in the center of the cluster.

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It's time to work on the 100 Roses project again. The next rose is another red and white versicolor. Instead of a huge floribunda like the  painting I just finished, the next one will be an exciting miniature rose. Stay tuned to my 100 Roses page to see the finished piece. As always, thanks for following! 

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June 15, 2025​

After closing my solo show at the Texas Discovery Gardens, I'm getting reorganized with new projects. Lots of people commented during the exhibition that they would like to buy a print, either due to wall space or budget. I'm taking those requests seriously and working with Finer Works art printing to release some limited edition giclee prints. These prints are richly colored and look just like the originals except for their sizes. I set up a Shopify store that makes it easy for collectors to order and pay for art online. 

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Back in the studio, I'm taking a short break from the rose series. My newest painting is a large depiction of a floribunda cluster. Yes, it's another rose but it is big! It's painted more like a traditional watercolor than a botanical illustration. Maybe I'll follow this up with a partner painting. These should both be finished over the summer if I don't mess up (:

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March 15, 2025​

Three months have passed since I last updated and it truly doesn't seem that long. Between preparing for my upcoming exhibition and continuing my rose project I stay occupied in the studio.

 

Currently, I'm painting a small and delicate depiction of Rosa 'Queen of Sweden'. This is one of my favorite roses because of its dark pink centers when the blooms first begin to open. It is also challenging because it is a white to pink rose. White is the most difficult color in my opinion. It is never just white, but contains a multitude of pale hues.

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I hope that my exhibition at the Discovery Gallery brings a lot of joy and curiosity to many people. This show required so much planning, creation, framing and finishing touches. I'm installing it on April 8th and you can see it until June 8th. Please stop by if you are in the DFW area. The Discovery Gardens are easy to find and fun to visit. The opening reception is on April 13th from 1-3, while I don't expect large crowds, it would be wonderful to meet some of my supporters. It's free and open to the public.

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December 15, 2024​

I'm so grateful for all of the Christmas commissions I got to fulfill this year! There were six small paintings and those kept me very busy throughout October and November. It is always a challenge to make someone else's idea a reality, but it is also very satisfying when it works out.

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Now I'm back to the 100 Roses Project and I'm about to complete the sixth rose. Each rose takes about two to three weeks to complete. They are almost like painting miniatures because their details are so small. I'm hoping to show the first 12 or 15 of them at a solo exhibition that I'm planning in Dallas for April - June 2025 (more news to come).

 

The latest rose is Rosa Gallica 'Rosamundi'. This is a very old rose that I encountered growing in its versicolor form in California. It is also one of the most beautiful roses that Redoute illustrated for Marie Antionette. I found that rendering the leaves accurately was pretty difficult for this rose.  Because I was working from a photo, it was difficult to get the surface texture just right. ​Thank you for visiting my website and exhibitions. I hope you're having a beautiful holiday season.

 

November 2, 2024​

October was a month for roses. I planted six new roses in my gardens and visited The Huntington Botanical Gardens in Pasadena, California. The botanical garden was at the height of its October rose blooms. Although I couldn't bring home any of the roses, I took the opportunity to gather references for my paintings. Among my favorites were 'The Fairy' a delicate, tiny rose and a giant planting of Mutabilis in full, multi-colored bloom. California is a beautiful place for roses and The Huntington rose garden amazed me. It seemed a little magical to be standing among so many roses. As the sun began to set, I sat close to a row of blooms and just breathed in their fragrance and studied all of the soft petals.

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In the studio, I have been busy with commissioned work for the holidays and a new still life painting for my Farm to Market series. The latest rose in my series of 100 roses was Rosa Dortmund, which I was able to finish just before traveling. These paintings take a very long time to complete but are meditative and relax me. Rosa Dortmund is on the homepage of this website.​ As the fall and winter descend, it's time to buckle down into some serious studio work. 

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September 2, 2024​

The rose paintings are bringing me a lot of joy. It's a highly detailed process from start to finish. Even though the heat here has been relentless, I spend the first part of every painting studying the specimen outdoors. Did you know that there are over 300 species of roses? Every rose has nuanced differences. Roses that look very similar in bloom may exhibit differences in their growth patterns and plant structures. I look carefully at stems, leaf shapes and colors, veining, the way the rose buds look before they open, and the way the petals change color. And these differences don't even scratch the surface of what makes each variety unique. So the process of getting to know my subject is an important part of each painting. It's like the way writers are always given the advice to write about what they know. How can I portray the beauty I see if I don't fully understand it? This train of thought has also led me to reading a lot about roses. It helps that I work in a public library and have access to a lot of information. Often, the roses that I find are not clearly named. In public gardens, labels might be faded or moved. That's what happened with the latest rose. I think it's a called Rosa Falstaff due to its appearance and a nearby label in the garden. I'm currently painting and learning more about a rose called Rosa Dortmund. 

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