This particular bouquet was very full with the lemon and cadmium yellow sunflowers -- they grabbed center stage. I love them because they are bold and beautiful in the arrangements. I stuffed them into the vase with the fuchsia zinnias and lavender cosmos. more »
This painting is part of my downtown Des Moines cityscape series. What attracted me to this particular building was the signage and architecture. It is a unique structure and using collage best describes my impression of it. more »
This is a special design combining the bicycle amid the downtown buildings on Grand Avenue in Des Moines. more »
Drawing and painting my garden flowers has been a delight for me. Every year I add new plants to the old favorites. I draw from life in the garden and also cut bouquets to set up still lifes. more »
I began this abstract collage without a thumbnail sketch, but by choosing a variety of colors from my hand-painted acrylic papers. Some of my newer papers were painted with a bristle brush instead of using the brayer to roll and blend the pigments. I liked the brush marks on the paper which adds some new […] more »
Nothing is more inspiring than a vase of fresh cut flowers from my garden! These gladioli and small sunflowers smelled wonderful, and their myriad colors and intricate shapes of petals and leaves inspired me to paint them. In the winter I plan and dream about what new varieties to add to my garden. Painting still […] more »
Painting a series of musical instruments has been on my mind lately. This began with a very loose contour drawing in ink and turned out to be more complicated than I thought. I completed the drawing from life and included the many sections of details as I worked. Sometimes I like to begin doing a […] more »
Lately I have been working on a variety of Iowa-themed work in preparation of my joint exhibition next year with Deb Baughman, to be held at Indian Hills College in Ottumwa. This collage is a design of an old grain elevator in Chariton, Iowa. The structure was interesting with its many jutting pieces stacked on […] more »
This is a design from my archives that I decided to rework and improve with various color changes and textures. The inspiration for this vertical design was the architecture of the buildings in downtown Des Moines, Iowa. I love the different shapes of the buildings. It began with a picture-taking adventure throughout the city, from various […] more »
This artwork is part of my Downtown Des Moines series, one of my most popular themes. I worked from a photograph taken a few years ago. A sketch fleshes out the main shapes and I edit throughout the drawing because there are a lot of unnecessary details that will not contribute to the final composition. […] more »