I started painting when I was seven at my childhood home in Fayetteville, NC.  We had a print of a painting by Paul Dettlefsen (1899 – 1986) of a water wagon pulled by horses wetting a cobblestone street with a brother and sister following behind playing in the water spraying behind it.  The detail of the painting amazed me and I became determined to paint like him.  I tried to teach myself through trial and error but after I realized that explaining to my mother what it was she was looking at was a bad sign that I may not have been born with an innate gift as a painter, I had my dad buy me some of Robert Wood’s How to Paint books from the local hobby store.  After I copied a few of his paintings, I got the hang of it and my painting ability became pretty decent.  For a long time after that I copied photographs I had taken from nature walks or trips to the beach and became good at making a composition look real.  I am satisfied now with capturing the feel of a scene more than the details, so my paintings are more impressionistic now than they used to be. 

I paint mostly landscapes, seascapes and wildlife in oils, acrylics and watercolors.  I am a student of nature, so I work hard to capture wildlife accurately.  I have placed first in my medium at several juried art shows, and I have sold well at art festivals, so I plan to make the most out of the popularity of art in Wilmington now that I live here.