Welcome and thank you for visiting my DPW Gallery!

My life is not too different from many artists wanting to paint but having to work elsewhere for income.  For much of my time I was an elementary teacher or office manager; both jobs I enjoyed. But if I could have painted and made a living from it, how wonderful that would have been!

I am basically a self-trained artist, having had very little formal training.  The couple of courses I did take were one in color theory and the other in printmaking, hence the several Artist Proofs I have on my website.

My interest in art began in the 1970’s where I did several graphite landscapes of old barns and a few watercolors with cheap paint and paper.  A trip to France in the late 1970’s provided an opportunity to collect photos of subjects that I then upon return created as pen and ink sketches.  Character sketches were my favorite subjects at that time. In the early 1980’s I experimented with watercolor landscapes and florals with some success in marketing them in the Washington, DC area. 

Then life got in the way of doing what I loved--producing art of any kind.  For 35 years I was unable to fulfill my desire to draw or paint. Then in August 2019 I learned that I was going to lose my eyesight from multiple diseases.  Realizing that I have only about five years where I would be able to see well enough to paint gave me the impetus to make the most of those years. My health had returned from having cancer in 2014 and I could now devote myself to art! 

 I chose a new medium with which to experiment--pastel. 

 The brightness of pastel is ideal for capturing the vividness of flowers and fall and spring foliage.  And being out of drawing practice, pastels are so forgiving! My efforts are devoted to capturing the beauty of this God-given world.  Of course, that is an impossible task; but if you can even communicate a hint of that beauty, then maybe you can enable others to appreciate it.  In our fast-paced world most individuals don’t spend enough time contemplating the amazing beauty of our world. “Stop and smell the roses” is the expression that comes to mind.