EDUCATION & TEACHING
I received a B.F.A. from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University, and I studied with landscape painter Neil Welliver at the University of Pennsylvania from which I earned my Master’s in Fine Art in 1983. I have taught at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Tyler School of Art, the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the University of the Arts; and I joined the faculty at Cabrini College for twelve years in Radnor, Pennsylvania, where I was Assistant Professor of Fine Arts. Currently I am teaching at Delaware County Community College.
EXHIBITIONS AND PUBLICATIONS
My paintings have been exhibited at the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum in Strasburg, PA; the Vose Gallery in Boston, MA; the Pennsylvania State Museum in Harrisburg, PA; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia; Somerville Manning Gallery in Wilmington, DE; the Philadelphia Museum of Art Gallery; David David Gallery in Philadelphia, PA; Burrison Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania; Fireside Gallery in Devon, PA; and scores of other galleries and exhibition spaces.
COLLECTIONS
My paintings have been purchased by the American Council on Education in Washington DC, the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia, Conrail Executive Offices in Philadelphia (a commission of four paintings), the University of Pennsylvania, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University Hospital, Temple University Law School, MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine, ARAMARK food services, Blue Cross, SmithKline Beecham, Elf Atochem, the Settlement Music School of Philadelphia, and numerous private and corporate collectors in the United States and abroad.
ABOUT MY WORK
I paint the light and shadows that I see around me – usually on individual figures waiting in suburban or urban landscapes. My favorite locations are often train stations. Most of these paintings explore the contrast between the human form and the architecture of the stations: patient people waiting amid the sharp angles, the strong light, and the distant perspectives of the rails. I explore how these figures fit into their environments, and how the lights and darks unite them all.
I also love the feel of manipulating oil paints and how these thick and viscous liquids, saturated with pigments, solidify and become immobile. I create large oil paintings on canvases that are often five or six feet tall, as well as small, detailed works using oil paints on prepared pieces of watercolor paper. The themes and subjects, however, remain the same.
My husband is a woodworker and a gilder. He frames my large canvases either with stripping, or he will create handmade wooden frames for them. He ‘floats’ my small paintings on linen-covered archival boards and surrounds them with sink mats wrapped in matching fabric. He then designs and hand-carves frames, often water-gilded, for each painting.