I’ve always been an artist at heart, periodically inspired to create, painting murals on our walls with acrylics, pastel portraits of pets and dabbling in oil painting as well. With the purchase of a sewing machine in 2006, I discovered a real passion for fabrics and great satisfaction in combining colors, textures and patterns to create an integrated whole. The discovery of Quilting Arts magazine led me to the realization that I could combine all of my talents into the creation of quilted arts. And so after years of experimenting I felt I had found my bliss, combining my love of drawing, painting, color and fabrics in the creation of original quilted art.
My work developing painting techniques for fabric artwork led to a desire to return to traditional painting on paper and canvas. For a realist like myself, painting on fabric became frustrating as I could not get the detail I wanted in subjects and the quilting often obscured fine detail. Inspired by other artists in my life, I decided to try my hand at traditional acrylic painting on canvas. My first painting “Toes at Waters Edge” was an incredibly complex snapshot of colors, reflections and shadows. I found such satisfaction in painting each detailed area and was pleased with the result. During 2016 I divided my time between quilting projects and painting and was increasingly drawn to this mode of expression to create the detail I desired.
Over the summer of 2016 I had a crisis of sorts. I took a short course in Botanical Drawing and was excited with the new medium of colored pencils. I finally realized that trying to “do it all” slows progress on mastering any one thing. Something had to go. While I do still enjoy creating multimedia art quilts, confining myself to these alone feels as if I’m denying my true creative mode of expression, as if I’m just playing on the edge of being an “artist” in the true sense of the word. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished as an art quilter and this will continue in the future, but now is the time for me to focus on painting and the exciting new realm of botanical drawing.