I live in the Southern Gulf islands of BC where island life is close to nature, full of community spirit and home to many artists who like me are inspired by the natural beauty that surrounds us.  The light on the land and sea around the island changes constantly with the seasons which provides me artistic interest.  My goal is simply to improve and for me, learning is a life long quest.  Art is one of those wonderful activities that can be pursued at any age.

Largely self taught, drawing was a hobby while working in the big smoke. On retirement I discovered pastels with the help of fellow artists on island. The wonderful pure pigments can be applied like drawing or as brush strokes to achieve soft and hard edges, vibrant colour and texture.

In the last three years I have also become interested in travel sketching which meant learning about water colour.  To my surprise, the two mediums while quite different in approach, complement each other which provides much enjoyment and learning experiences.  Often now I will do a value or colour sketch using ink and water colour in preparation for a pastel painting.  Its a good mental stretch to think about values, shapes and composition where one medium uses few pigments and the other many pigment shades and tints.  In water colour the traditional approach is to work from lighter values to the darks vs. pastel where the general approach is to work from dark to light.