Chinese Brush Painting has been my love for over 30 years. I have been hooked ever since I walked into Paul & Madeline Fu’s Mill Valley art store where I started taking my very first painting lessons with Madeline in the back of the store. Everything about this painting style attracted me - the fog shrouded mountains, birds, rocks, trees and the beautiful bamboo brushes, white ceramic dishes and rich black ink...
While I use traditional techniques and love the traditional Chinese subjects, I do like to mix them with unusual papers, bark and linen and my own western influence. In the tradition of Chinese brush painting, I paint from my imagination, not from a scene in front of me. I might watch the fog roll over Mt. Tam or stare at a table filled with scattered photos or remember scenes & then I paint from memory in my studio. In the way of traditional Chinese brush painters I take inspiration from my life in Vermont, California, and other places I have often visited including Montana and Alaska. Despite my confessed impatience and high energy, I enjoy the focus and delicacy that is required of this art. When I’m really stressed out, I’ll sit down and paint my trees - It’s my meditation.
I hope you enjoy my paintings …I love creating them!!
Originally from Vermont I relocated to San Francisco in 1970 to practice Nursing at SFGH, then coordinated Emergency Medical Services for the city of San Francisco. I changed careers in 1988 to become a full time realtor with Coldwell Banker in Marin County.
Today I can be found painting in my studio in the hills of Mill Valley, selling homes as a Realtor with Coldwell Banker, and as of 2008 singing jazz and blues with my band at local bars and music halls.