Art is an important part of my life, inspired by my mother and my uncle, who was a professional artist and art instructor. I seek old barns, fields of hay, and scenes in nature, along with brilliant sunrises or sunsets. I like to capture these scenes on canvas to share their intensity, their beauty, and the emotions they emit. It is an expression of my visual and emotional reaction to life's moments. I have painted with watercolors, acrylics, pastels, and oils, and enjoy all of the mediums, each one producing a different visual with texture and color. During my youth, I spent summers at my grandparents' farm in Illinois and unknowingly was filling my head with visions of outdoor scenes on the farm; the buildings (silos, milk house, and windmill), barns, corn cribs, and the wonderful farmhouse. While I watched my uncle paint animals,  I would draw - I always wanted to be as wonderful of a painter as he was. It was my mother and sister who requested I paint a picture of the farmhouse, and that was the first painting where I saw and felt how much a visual could make people happy. Of course, they were probably bias critics. Memories aside, I love painting!