IN THE BEGINNING:

These paintings represent a small sample of my earliest attempts - in my adult life - to express the need to create and to want to pursue artmaking with wholehearted commitment and forceful passion.

Water-based or chalk (soft) pastels are lots of fun and wonderful to work with, play with, experiment with. I am always amazed at how colors explode upon being "awakened" onto various paper and textured surfaces. It impresses me particularly how colors "behave" and "participate" in the composition of a painting and I continue to be fascinated by their vibrancy, their manageability and fullness of tones and hues.

I live in a beautiful community right on the Pacific Ocean and guarded by majestic, imposing, beautiful mountains. Every day when I wake up to start my day, I am privileged to witness gorgeous mountain views and the placid, soothing and very inspiring Pacific sea. How could I not want to paint? ….., how could I not want to celebrate and acknowledge mother nature’s abundance and gifts?

These pastel paintings are a small visual token of appreciation that I have created which help me to validate the journey upon which I have embarked as an artist and to also remember how fragile but spectacularly beautiful our planet is.