Paintings and Lessons

Being known mainly as a representational artist, I have stepped outside this box. This book includes a small portfolio of works where I allowed myself to explore other art "isms." As an educator, for as long as I have been an illustrator/painter, I made a collection of lesson ideas and recorded each in sketchbooks. These pages include homework ideas and paintings to demonstrate the particular lesson. I share my thoughts on paintings along with mention of notable artists I admire and their work that I've shown in my slide shows. Most importantly, this collection, though devoted to understanding the fundamentals, also hopes to demonstrate their versatility and to allow us to know that as handy as rules are and how they can give us a good start, they were also made to be broken.

I was born in Canton, Ohio, in 1954. Our parents moved our family to Arizona when I entered third grade. This was when my artistic fire was ignited and where I won my first award for the best drawing of a cowboy. After graduating from Agua Fria High School, I attended Arizona State University as a Fine Art Major. With confusion developing, I finally decided to study illustration and transferred to The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Leaving school early, I spent 17 years as an illustrator working for notable Ad agencies, Design firms, and publications. Together with my husband, Ray Roberts, a painter, and Art Center alumni, we raised three successful children. With 5 grandsons, we divide our time between Angels Camp, CA, Costa Mesa, CA, Reno, NV, and Camden, ME.