I come from a family with some very talented artists, but work a 9 to 5 job. My mother taught china painting for many years and my grandparents taught rosemaling when they retired. My great grandmother and many great aunts and uncles also painted. I have taken stained glass classes, but I am self-taught in oil painting. I have been painting for fun for around fifteen years and started with portraits of friends and landscapes from photos I have taken on trips. I've lived in Hyattsville, MD since 2008 and do a lot of gardening. Many of my more recent paintings are from photos I have taken of flowers and birds in my yard. With some of my unframed paintings, I have been using 1 and 1/2" deep canvases and painting the sides with an accent color to remove the need for a frame. Lately, I have also experimenting with putting images of some paintings on pillows and hope to start participating in art shows soon. I hope to paint more full time in a few years when I retire. Many of the paintings shown here are available for sale and I will update the photo descriptions for ones that are sold or are not available because they are gifts or commissions.