The Studio

My studio is a large, light-filled space on Vashon Island where I spend much of my time painting, experimenting, and following ideas as they develop. It’s become a kind of sanctuary for me, a place where I can settle into the work and give it the time and space it needs.

About

I’m a painter based on Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest. My work moves between expressive figures, botanicals, and landscapes inspired by places I’ve traveled. Each begins more or less in the same way, with something that makes me stop and pay attention.

I studied art at the University of Washington and began my career painting in Seattle and Rome before stepping away from a full-time studio practice while raising my four children. I eventually found my way back to painting, first in a shared studio and now in my barn studio on Vashon. 

I work primarily in oil and am especially drawn to color, gesture, light, and the ways a painting can hold the feeling of a particular moment or place.

My work has been shown in galleries in the Seattle area and at international art fairs in Miami and Finland, and is held in private collections throughout the United States. 🐥

My Painting Practice

My paintings often begin with something that catches my attention: a gesture, an unusual bit of light, a landscape I want to remember, or the shapes and colors of a plant. I usually start with some kind of reference, whether it’s a photograph, a drawing, or a smaller study, but I’m not interested in recreating it exactly.

Once I begin painting, color and intuition tend to take over. I often work on several pieces at once, moving back and forth between them and letting one painting inform another. I like leaving room for the unexpected, allowing the work to shift and change as I go.

Why I Paint

In life and art, I find myself continually searching for balance. I think many of us are, in one way or another. In the midst of a vibrant and colorful life, I also seek peace and calm that can be expressed through color, abstraction, and the emotions that lie just beneath the surface.

This search for balance exists within each painting I create. The painting develops from this search. The colors also develop intuitively and I'm careful not to overthink them. I love the way they intersect, interact, and shape the emotional atmosphere of a work.

My hope is that the paintings carry this same sense of harmony to those who encounter them.

Early Series: Heartbeat Horizons

  • These abstract landscapes were created during a period when my studio time was brief and often interrupted by the rhythms of early motherhood. The horizon line became a kind of visual heartbeat—something steady I could return to as I moved in and out of the studio.

    View this series