My early studies in Philadelphia were at Drexel University in Fashion and Design.As an outgrowth of that ,wanting to design a true original I took workshops in batik on fabric. I then developed my own language of “ painterly silk batik”. Then, at the age of 50, I went to Italy and took a summer painting program at Florence Academy of Art. Upon my return to Philadelphia I continued those studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art .
My most recent work employs various mixed media and acrylics on canvas. I usually begin a painting by building up layers of watercolor, fluid acrylics, and hand painted Japanese paper. Sometimes, as in my earlier work with batik on silk , I will paint with hot beeswax onto the papers.
The gentle tension between line and texture in my expressive floral painting is something that I am always trying to be mindful about. That comes from my years of working with the Tjanting tool, laying fluid lines of wax as a resist on silk in an intuitive manor.
