The Magnolia Artists gathered for the first time as a group - since March of 2020, in the gardens of Filoli in Woodside. It was early May 2021 and we had all received our two doses of COVID vaccine. It felt like we were safe to be in each others' presence - especially...

I was intrigued by the winding quality of this branch and the way it snaked across the camera's viewfinder.  The blossoming branch grew on a tree at a favorite garden - Filoli.  The Magnolia artists were on a field trip there the April before the pandemic.  I messed...

A quiet little painting – another from a morning walk in our neighborhood. This composition of a pair of camelias rose to the top of the list of things to paint so I’d have something for February in the 2021 In Beauty…at Home calendar. The winter months aren’t as easy...

Oh, to have a day alone with beauty. I adore the people in my life. But sometimes it is just as sweet to have the time to myself.  Particularly when it’s part of my creative life.  I can follow my own whims and rhythm without tending to anyone else's. Spring in the...

It's just the best - being with someone who loves what we love as much as we do. This painting came out of that kind of experience. In the gardens at Filoli with dear artist friends Lenore and Sue. Sue and I share a thing about apple blossoms – how sweet and chubby...

These hydrangeas in my parents' garden were still blooming the at Christmastime. The leaves reveal the lateness of the season, but most of the flower clusters were as bright and vibrant as mid-summer! It was a mild winter, but still – this colorful? At the end of 2016...

This piece came from Paulettes' photo - a rhody from her garden.  As we looked through her collection of potentials, I kept suggesting she paint this one.  Finally after the umpteenth "nah," I sais, "I'll paint it then!"  She offered me to "go ahead."  The light is so...

The image that I used to create this painting was taken on a walk in Fairfax, not too far from where we lived. The tree was in its prime bloom, no spent blossoms. OMG - so gorgeous.  Hardly anything says "spring" more than standing under and looking up into a...

Here's one from a morning walk with our pup.  We were across town in Fairfax, in front of friends Dean and Nancy's old place.   There we were, walking along, and  something grabs me and know I HAVE to paint it.  Look at the light bouncing off the shiny camellia...

These are Elsie Frye rhododendron flowers, from a shrub that grew for a time in the Fairfax garden.  It was right after the rain, in the bright, late morning light. After the daffodils, these were the first to bloom in the spring in that garden. They are faintly...

This dahlia is from Mike and Julie's garden where the Zin vines I've painted grow. All the Browns were at their place for a barbeque one day in the late summer of 2008. The low evening light on this flower caught my eye. This painting swam in my imagination for weeks...

This is painted from an image from my stay in France in 1996. I took a long weekend on my own in August to tour the chateaux along the Loire valley. There was an amazing and fascinating garden exhibition near one of the castles. These dahlias were growing in one of...

Dear friends Dean and Nancy lived for many years in a sweet house with an even sweeter garden. This is their Gravenstein apple tree. The configuration of the branches along with the delicacy of the apple blossoms in full bloom were the thing. Of course, I'm also a...