I have a long standing love affair with island life. Being surrounded by water, and the expanse of sky, is transformational for me.

I was blessed to have called Peaks Island my year round home for ten years. Life on Peaks allows one to recapture the essence of what we may lose sight of in our 20th century lifestyles...a communion with nature, a connection with ourselves, a sense of community.

It was here that I reconnected with my creative voice. My passion for creating art took flight.   

"Once an islander, always an islander." Peaks will forever be a touchstone for me.

Capturing the quality of light, the essence of a feeling, a place, a moment connects me. Many times, I will paint outdoors. I choose to use soft pastels for the intensity of color I can achieve with pure pigment. Many layers of color later, the magic of the moment is revealed.

I am fascinated by the transforming power of the sea, and most happy being by, on, or in the ocean.

 I constantly study the color of light and reflections on the surface, in the wave crests, on the sand. It never gets old for me.

I am a 12th generation Mainer.  My parents were the first of their families to move to Massachusetts, where I grew up. Every summer our family would spend a block of time at Reid State Park and every summer, as a child and young adult, it was harder for me to go back to Massachusetts. I made a pact with myself I would eventually come home to Maine.  I am grateful I now live on the other end of the Sheepscot River with Reid being only a 30 minute drive.  It will always be a touchstone and a source of creative inspiration for me. 

Reflections reveal the magical, shimmering quality of light, color and the essence of images, without definition.

My work is about capturing a feeling, a sense of spirituality and the essence of a moment in time found in nature. 

Making art is soul  food for me -

being outdoors, connecting with nature,

creating in my studio,

losing all sense of time and place. 

The salt marsh next to my studio is a constantly changing source of inspiration.  The tide, the colors of the season, the mood of the sky and reflections, the birds and the wildlife. 

Painting keeps me connected and focused, living in the moment, reminding me I have a choice in how I
view the world around me.

Art, like life, is a work in progress, each piece I create is a study for the next, building intuition and opening to trust.  

I hang my pastels in my studio for months, picking them up to add a color, or change a shape until the story that wants to be told is complete. 

My creativity is my expression of my passion for life, for nature, for people...and of deep gratitude for this incredible place I live in.

Passion is contagious. As an artist, it is my hope to ignite a spark in others and open their eyes to a new way of seeing. 

A week on Monhegan to hike, muse, draw, paint and photograph over 600 images. There is so much that goes on behind the painting that actually gets framed and hung on the wall. Hours of looking, seeing, image making, analyzing, discarding...and visiting magical places that jumpstart my creative juices. Feeling lucky and very grateful.

I have visited Tortolla, in the British Virgin Islands, many times in the last 25 years. A most magical island of incredible beauty, turquoise water, soft air, and people who are welcoming, kind, incredibly strong and resilient.

My first visits were with dear girlfriends. On our third trip, in 1996, I decided to make a huge leap of faith. I closed a successful graphic design business in the Boston area to move to an island in Maine. There, I recreated myself, slowing down from the pace of the corporate world. I renovated an old cottage, met my husband, had a baby, and eventually started working again for small businesses.

Since that fateful trip, I have returned a number of times to sail with my husband, friends and family. After the devastation of Hurricane Irma, we returned to find an island being rebuilt with faith and courage, by people who leave me humbled by their strength and resiliency.

"Painting Fridays"

I dedicate Fridays as my day to paint.  I most always start a new piece early in the morning.  Work hangs in my studio until I see how to bring a painting to completion, sometimes the colors need to settle onto the page overnight, sometimes it takes months before I am satisfied the story is told.

Sometimes it’s a passionate burst of creativity I feel called to capture without conscious thought.  I grab my camera and get lost in the moment. Sometimes that is enough. Other times, when I study the images, I am called to explore it deeper, there is more of a story to be told...and I will bring the image to a different interpretation with my pastels. 

One of my favorite times to photograph is when the sun is low on the horizon, it’s dawn, it’s dusk...colors are magnified, intense...ordinary scenes are transformed into magical shapes and colors. Often the moon is high in the sky...the in between time. The Magic Hour.

In my mid thirties, I had a successful graphic design business outside of Boston, but I had lived too long in Massachusetts away from my home state of Maine. I took a huge leap of faith, and after one trip to Peaks, decided to call the island my home.  I was single at the time and bought an old house that needed a lot of TLC. With the help of my dad, my girlfriends and new island neighbors, lots of sweat, muscle and beer, I was ready to live there full time.  

I was lucky enough to call Peaks Island my home for ten years. I met my husband, and somehow convinced him island living was in his future. Our daughter was born there, and for six years, we had a most magical childhood.  Sea glass hunting, rock hopping, ferry rides, pot luck dinners, back shore campfires... and most of all, a community of friends that became family and forever in my heart.

The magic of island living is the feeling of timelessness, where the things that matter most are still valued....being a good neighbor, and friend.  When an islander is in need, the community is right there.  

Being surrounded by water, and the expanse of sky was transformational for me.  I reconnected with my creative voice, and dusted off my camera. I connected with other artists and like minded souls.

Lucky for me, "once an islander, always an islander," my island neighbors promised when I moved.  Today, when I return, there is always welcoming hugs and that wonderful, timeless, island feeling that somethings never change. 

Peaks will forever be a touchstone for me.

I love photographing people in their natural state of being.

I much prefer candid shots, capturing the essence of a person, watching, waiting for the moment when they are least aware, and show true emotion.  

Traveling has always rejuvenated my creative juices...new faces, new cultures, different light and landscapes... the joy of discovering how people are the same wherever you go... the gift of time to soak it all in and try to capture the essence of the experience on film.