Art has always been in my life in one form or another. At the age of five I use to sit and watch my mother mend or sew our clothes. She saw my interest and taught me how to use a needle and thread. By the time I was in the 6th grade I was creating and sewing my own clothes. I learned how to embroider and crochet as well. Throughout my school years I excelled in anything creative.
My first summer job at the age of 14 was at a wedding chapel, doing flower arrangements and bridle bouquets. I was very active in my school and church choir since the age of 8 and had great dreams of becoming a famous singer. I moved to Lake Tahoe with my family in 1974, I was 15. My mother began taking oil painting workshops and would come home with beautiful paintings. Our walls filled up fast with her new found love. She taught me how to paint my first oil painting at our kitchen table. After that I went with her a few times to the art workshops.
A year after my mother began to paint my parents opened Lakeside Gallery. The rest of my life, to this day, has been greatly influenced by the art world.
I grew up at Lakeside Gallery. The business housed a gallery, art supplies, a classroom and a frame shop. I often helped out with customers and was trained by my father to do framing.
I learned how to paint from many talented teachers over the last 30 years who gave classes at the gallery Sally Seago, Howard Rees, Bill Blackman and Lola Owen, to mention a few. Growing in knowledge and developing my own styles, I began helping my mother teach her younger students. Saturdays were full of children from ages 7 and up, all eager to learn the fine art of oil painting. I discovered I learned even more by teaching them. And I loved seeing the excited look on their faces when they completed a painting. Today I teach both children and adults. My teaching website is www.art-e-studio.net.
