Activities and Associations:
A founding member of the Mispillion Art League of Milford, DE,
with signature status in the Delaware Watercolor Society, I also belong
to and support other art leagues in Delaware and have been recognized
as a Delaware by Hand Master. I have also had the honor of being appointed
by the Governor to serving two terms on the State of Delaware Arts Council.
Exhibiting widely in the region, I have been thrilled to win many awards and participated in several unique opportunities to express myself creatively. A great joy and rewarding activity is teaching art to both children and adults. Nothing is more satisfying than working closely with individuals on special projects to make their vision come to life is also a genuine pleasure.
Complicated objects, reflective surfaces and machinery are like artistic
gymnastics for me. I love the challenge of recreating these but making
them mine. Nature brings me the most fascinating and colorful subject
matter; shadows filtering through a tree on the side of an old barn. But
most of all I love people. Not portraiture, but rather interior and urban
landscapes filled with people telling their story in a moment frozen on the canvas.
I constantly take very bad photos, and bring them back to the studio as references.
Creative Process:
I’ll take those images back to my computer and spend days cutting and pasting and reinventing the scene to make an interesting composition to paint in the studio. Enjoy the ride as you experience the painting. Things are going on all around but they all lead back to the main subject or event.
I enjoy working in a variety of mediums and trying something new.
The medium and colors I choose relate to the feeling I had as an observer
in that moment. A jazz singer letting it wail while the crowd rocks?
Maybe cool blues, green-grays with pops of red, maybe in oils. A family
at the restaurant table drenched in sunlight? The soft edges of pastels
would work, or maybe luminous watercolors. A wedding party would
work as a collage in acrylic painted tissue paper or a monotype.
Exploring new mediums keeps things fresh.
And while my style is representational, the challenge is not making those
people and objects look like a photograph, it’s how to use texture, color
and composition to make me feel the way I felt when I first witnessed
their story.
Me and my art:
Featured on Delmarva Public Radio
Click here:
Click on book cover to order
"My Name is Penelope", "Roma Enid and Her Marvelous Rocks", or "The Great Ocean Clean-up", each written by Ingrid Wolfengren, and illustrated by C.Mercedes Walls
I don’t remember when my family started telling me that I was an artist, it had to be before I was three. Thanks to this encouragement, I have been active in the visual arts as long as I can remember. Even while pursuing other careers. The meaning of that word "artist" has changed and continues to grow with me. Early fascinations were the artists in children's books like EH Shepard, Beatrix Potter, Dr. Seuss, Sir John Tenniel. I’d do my best to represent the nouns in my world. As my world became more complex, I wanted my art to tell a story. I was influenced by the great visual storytellers; Norman Rockwell, Andrew Wyeth and the soft impressionism of Mary Cassatt. I am learning how different medium influence atmosphere, mood and story telling and how to use the elements of art to recreate the feeling and mood of the composition and continue to learn from local artists, painters, photographers and sculptors alike.
January 2018 saw the release of a new book by Dana Kester McCabe featuring me along with other artists from “the land of pleasant living."
Click here to order :
This painting was the image on the 2017 Donor mug, commissioned by WDDE 91.1 FM to thank donors for contributing to Delmarva First Media, Delaware's NPR station
2015 Delaware Arts Summit -
Performance by Hannah Sturgis and C. Mercedes Walls
