For many years, I painted strictly from nature and wanted to capture the beauty of the creation around me. Much of my work was created on location, which gave me the truest sense of the patterns of light and shadows, as well as my interpretation of colors. I enjoyed plein air painting in Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana and California as well as in Spain and France and found special places everywhere. I had a great appreciation of the vibrancy evoked by painting en plein air.

And then the pandemic hit. Several of the plein air groups I was a part of quit painting together. More artists started instructing online. Things changed. I personally lost family members to the pandemic. So my paintings took on an abstract quality. For the last two years, I have expressed myself through abstract paintings while still using much of the color palette that I used while painting outside.

I will eventually go back to my calm expression of the beauty of the outdoors. I even envision a personal exhibit entitled Calm to Chaos and Back. But for now, my expression is chaos and broken.