Biography

I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and in my elementary school years I spent Saturday mornings in art classes at the New Orleans Museum of Art, in those days known as Delgado Museum of Art. In later years my art classes were with Marietta Ellison, a Garden District artist. She did not allow us to use photographs. Our classes were held on location in the French Quarter, parks, and plantation grounds. If the weather was poor we worked in her studio using books and other objects creating still life set ups.

My marriage to a seminary student brought me to Springfield, Illinois. His first parish was in North Carolina. I still pursued my art by participating in the Statesville Artists Guild producing 3 or 4 paintings a year while active in Church work and caring for 2 little daughters. 

We moved to Houma, Louisiana and I joined the Terrebonne Fine Arts Guild taking part in several of their shows. Eventually I joined a group of 8 artists which was known as The Red Geranium artists. This was my beginning as a professional artist, producing more work and learning how to market my work. Now I had 3 children, was active in church work, and producing enough art to participate and sell at outdoor garden shows every 2 months. Houma was an oil boom town and the people were very transient, sending my art work to various states and even to foreign countries. It was a time of growth for me. God blessed me in so many ways. I was asked to teach a morning art class of adult women and I had the opportunity to have classes with a local artist Dottie Billiu and master impressionist, Henry Hensche who moved there from Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Since moving to the Dallas Ft. Worth area in Texas I have studied art history and studio art at Tarrant County College and the University of Texas in Arlington. 
For 5 years I worked in a studio gallery in the Historic Stockyards in Ft. Worth. Due to the tourist traffic in this area my work again has gone throughout the United States and to countries like Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, England, and the city of Brussels. During this time I was invited to have two solo shows at the German-American Cultural Center in Gretna, Louisiana  in  the New Orleans area. It was at the 2001 show that I met Doctor Marc Matrana. He was writing a book called The Lost Plantation, The Rise and Fall of Seven Oaks. Because I had sketched Seven Oaks on location he admired the painting and asked for permission to publish it in his book. I felt honored that a photo of my painting was in his book. Again in 2004 I was invited back to the German-American Cultural Center to have another solo show. I have participated in shows here in  Dallas Ft. Worth and I belong to the local Trinity Art Guild. Recently God has opened a new door for me in illustrating children's books at my Langley Hill studio in Colleyville, Texas.

I have been blessed in my art work in so many ways and it is my hope that my work would glorify God as He continually opens new art doors and leads me along the path He has planned for me.