6 x 8 inches / oil on carton / 2015
Private Collection, Pennsylvania
Oil on Linen / 30 x 26 inches
My friend, Marta Barroso, dancing on my rooftop with the new, embroidered silk shawl which was a gift to her from her family. These shawls are an investment for a Spanish dancer, as only the best, heavy silk shawls fly in the best way. This pose expressed a powerful and joyful womanhood.
Private Collection, Tennessee
Oil on Linen / 59 x 39 in / Private Collection
Stopping for tea or coffee and a snack at 6 pm is a Spanish tradition I adopted with alacrity. Here I utilized a point of view which I admired in recent work of John Michael Carter. My friend, Clara, was willing to model for me while showing off her merienda-ing experience. Notice the chair which she was re-caning before the break.
Oil on Linen / 36 x 29 in / 2017
Brie Stoltzfus visited our Spanish village for much of 2017, and I was attracted to her sense of elegant serenity. She and her husband, artist Caleb, inhabited a home with a fantastic roof terrace, and a composition was born. I enjoyed abstracting the pastoral landscape. The hours spent together at sunset I'll never forget.
Available at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
Oil / 29 x 25 in / Pending
I loved this girl’s style and intense gaze. She was participating in life fully, and with skepticism.
Oil on Panel / 10 x 8 in / Sold through Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
Oil on Wood Panel / 12 x 12 inches / 2017
A stunning embroidery from Uzbekistan provided the foundation for this composition. For many years I've been organizing figures and still life against the white walls of my adopted "Pueblo Blanco" in Andalusia. This meditation in saturated color is a swing in a new direction.
Private Collection
Oil on Linen / 14 x 12 / 2021 / Sold
My window paintings always have yearning in them, a pull to the outside world. With the year of Covid-19, I feel that pull, particularly. We’re working in a new space, and I’m only just learning the light there. The copper pitcher is new to me, but I can already tell I’m going to love working with it for the rest of my life.
Oil on Linen / 16 x 20 inches
Collection of Virginia Webb and Randy Slater, Tennessee
Oil on Linen / 21.5 x 15 inches / 2014
Collection of Jack and Betty McKee, Tennessee
Oil on Linen / 28.75 in x 36 inches
Private Collection
Oil on Linen / 40 in x 40 in
Permanent Collection of the Edmond Hotel, opening 2017 Tennessee
Oil on Linen / 12 in x 12 in
Collection of Elliot Noss, Canada
Oil on Linen / 2018
Many of my still life have highly-ornamental fabrics and bright colors. I wanted this one to be quieter.
Private Collection Tennessee
Pastel on Paper
Laura Rodriguez dancing on our roof, Olvera, Spain.
Collection of Tina Wright, Spain
Oil on Linen / 36.2 in x 25.6 in
My riding instructor, Ismael Martin rides dressage, "doma vaquero" and drives horses in harness. His performances on horseback are sought at weddings and parades around Andalusia. I love him for the patience he employed during the five years he taught me to ride while I spoke almost no Spanish.
Private Collection, Denver, Colorado USA
Oil on Linen / 36 x 36 inches
A portrait of violinist Sheri Peck, with music which she played at her mother's funeral.
Collection of Southern Adventist University
Oil on Linen / 48 inches x 60 inches
Peace and quiet found on a ski lift. Violinist Sheri Peck models.
Private Collection, Louisville, Kentucky USA
Oil on Linen / 40.5 x 72
From the artist's tour of the American West.
Private Collections, Scottsdale, Arizona
Oil on Linen / 20 x 16 inches
Knowing when to stop making a painting more "real" can be difficult for a realist painter. In this piece, about my love for the town of Locarno, Switzerland, I thought this version expressed most perfectly my affection. I chose loose paint and emotional rather than realistic color.
Collection of Geir Friis, NYC
Pastel on Paper / 38 x 50 inches
There is tension between the desire for the bonds of relationships, and the desire for independence.
Collection of Laura and Neel Elliott, Tennessee
Charcoal on Paper
From my children's book "The Little Horses," about magical tiny equines who invade a girl's life. Not yet published.
Collection of Cynthia Nesson and Bruce Simonson
Pastel on Paper / 22 x 28 inches
The Wilhoit brothers of Hamilton County, Tennessee are most kind in permitting me to stalk their pigs around the farm.
Private Collection, Tennessee
Oil on Board / 8.5 x 23 inches
Tennessee herd waking at dawn.
Collection of Lori Head
Pastel on Paper / 19 x 25 inches
An young vaquera on her way to "feria" in Southern Spain, astride her 4-yr old stallion.
Collection of Cynthia Nesson and Bruce Simonson
Oil on Belgian Linen / 13.75 x 28.75 inches
After an all-night ride, the horses were turned out to pasture. Instead of dispersing, they stood for a while together to watch the sunrise. For me, perfect contentment.
Collection Mike and Angie McKee
Pastel on Paper / 24 x 24 in
Commissioned feline portraits provided enormous fascination for me. This is the last of a trilogy.
Private Collection, Tennessee USA
Watercolor on Paper/ unknown size and year
This doll and silk scarf belonged to my Swiss grandmother.
Private Collection
Oil on Panel / 5.5 x 9.75 inches / 2018
Painting a tiny still life from time to time is a way to put some zen into your life. Cherry season in Andalucia, with one of my favorite little hand-blown bottles from Utah.
Private Collection, Switzerland
Oil on Linen / 36 x 48 inches / 2016
I listened to an audio recording of Watership Down while painting this still life, which gave a whole other significance to the rabbit figurines. Antique blown glass from Switzerland, Spain and Italy, with a tiny self-portrait by Berthe Morisot.
Sold at Anderson Fine Art Gallery, St. Simon's Island, Georgia
Oil on Linen / 32 in x 21.25 in
My Spanish cobbler collects antique tools. This hand-forged jamon scales stole my heart.
Private Collection
Oil on Linen / 30 x 30 inches
The summer of 2015 was dedicated to painting equestrian-themed paintings. Here for the rider I placed good boots (of Spanish leather), an English bridle and my grandmother's antique Hermes scarf with coaches. For the horse I put a linoleum print of an Andalusian, and three juicy apples.
Collection of Jennifer and Phil Lawrence
Oil on Linen / 13.5 x 29.5 inches
There is a lemon tree in the patio at my husband's studio. When the citrus began falling, fat and yellow, off the tree, they reminded me of our bath ducks, and of the ugly duckling fable. Of course, there had to be butterflies, too.
Private Collection, Tennessee
Oil on Linen / 30 x 40
The Lakai fertility tapestries are so saturated and graphically interesting that I wanted the remainder of this composition to maintain tranquility. Silver, though technically reflecting everything, is somehow a peaceful material for me. And as always, I hunger for at least one small moment of humor in a still life, which was satisfied when the rabbit hopped into the bottom left corner.
SOLD at Anderson Fine Art Gallery, St. Simon's Island, Georgia
Oil on Linen / 15 in x 18 inches
Collection of David and Natalie Dewhirst
Oil on Linen / 32 x 24 inches
Over the last three years the flying rabbit has been a frequent actor on my still life stage. According to Native American folklore, the rabbit is a prey animal and is a signifier of the need to face fears: do you run? do you freeze? do you hide in the brambles? A rabbit with wings has yet another option: to soar.
Private Collection, Tennessee
Oil on Linen / 20 x 25 inches
A new commissioned piece fulfilling a request which read, "A painting with horses and a field of sunflowers." I composed this image from a ride in Southern Spain with two best friends, Clara and Laura, and their horses (also best friends) Hierbabuena and Cariñosa. The glowing orb is not a setting sun (see the cast shadows) but the rising harvest moon.
Private Collection
Oil on Linen / 20 x 24 inches (51 x 61 cm) / 2015-2016
A portrait representing integration of location and the arts, music in particular, into the character of an individual.
Private Collection
Oil on Linen / 48 x 60 inches
One day in southern Switzerland I rode a chair lift in summer to the top of an alp. I was with an old friend. We were enveloped in impermeable fog, and the sensation of peace was unforgettable. It felt like a refuge. This was October, and it was Chestnut season. I posed my friend, Sheri Peck, to recreate the sensation.
Private Collection, Kentucky
Oil on Linen / 20 x 16 inches / 2017
One of an artist's great pleasures is painting the portrait of someone beloved and well known. Debbie and I have been friends since I was sixteen. I have always loved her wearing the color blue, and here I literally bathed her in the royal color. Painting her and thinking of years of friendship reminded me of a beautiful quote about female friendships. “This is what they had always done together. The necessity of saying it out loud. Talking for the sheer pleasure, the hilarity. To be witness to the stunning accumulation of a life.” - Victoria Redel
Private Collection
Commissioned portrait in oil
20 x 16 inches
2017
Designed to hang as a matched set with the sibling portrait, but to stand alone as well.
Private Collection
Commissioned Oil on Linen portrait
20 x 16 inches
2017
Designed to hang as a matched set with the sibling portrait, but to stand alone as well.
Oil on Linen / 12 x 12 inches
Painting Begoña's portrait gave me great pleasure because her character is so radiant on her face, and because she is a truly beautiful woman.
Collection of the Amez Fernandez Family
12 x 12 inches / Oil on Linen
The highlight of the summer 2015 was painting portraits of the Amez family, close friends. Such expressive subjects are rare for an artist, and I thank them.
Amez Family Collection
Oil on Linen / 12 x 12 inches
Though young, Theo has the reasoning skills of an accomplished trial lawyer, and a great zest for life. He has no timidity towards his elders. I wanted to capture his sense of individuality, which resulted in a portrait which seems slightly older than his current age. He'll grow into it.
Amez Fernandez Collection
Oil on linen / 12 x 12 inches
This lovely woman excels in school and music, and has one foot in childhood, and one foot firmly in adulthood. It's a beautiful and difficult age to capture.
Amez Fernandez Collection
Oil / 30 x 24 in approx
This wonderful young artist and her husband came to paint with me in Spain, and we painted one another’s portraits. I had about 3 hours for the image. I loved her chiseled features and expressive eyes. With such little time the painting is little more than an impression, but one I enjoyed creating very much.
I recommend you research her work.
Collection of Ms. Kalaichi
Oil on Linen / 20 x 24 inches
The delightful daughter of friends with her enthusiastic dogs on the Via Verde, in Andalusia.
Private Collection, Spain
Pastel on Paper / 50 x 38 inches
I seldom paint from my imagination. This is an allegory depicting the tension between the desire for strong social ties and support, and the desire for autonomy. Here the model, loosely a self-portrait, finds the structural comfort of bonds without being actually bound.
Private Collection Alabama USA
Pastel on Roma Paper / 23.5 x 19.5 inches
In the way that a figurative sculpture of a specific woman is used to represent Spring, or Liberty, I employ Marta Barroso Fernandez to embody the spirit of Spanish Andalusia. The women of this region astonish me: strong and practical, yet capable of dazzling glamour. Family oriented and loving, but fiercely independent.
Private Collection Tennessee
25 x 19 inches / Pastel on la Carte paper
A self-portrait, this pastel won the Salmagundi award at the 2007 Pastel Society of America national juried exhibition. The "babushka" scarf I brought as a keepsake from the drapery stashes at the Russian Academy in St. Petersburg in 1991.
Collection of Cynthia Nesson and Bruce Simonson
Pastel on Roma Paper / 18.5 x 15.5 inches
I picked these sunflowers on the side of the highway in December in Andalusia. They filled me with thoughts of summer.
Available.
Oil on Linen / 25.25 x 19.5 inches
I've loved the yellow silk scarf since I bought it in a yard sale in 1985. It stars in tens of my still lifes. When a neighbor let me cut lemons off his Olvera tree, I wondered could the two objects be beautiful together as a sort of visual humor? Yellow polka dots host a yellow fruit? For more drama I chose the dark copper watering can and strong sideways light.
Private Collection
Oil on linen / 24 x 19.5 inches
A friend in Italy loaned me one of his grandmother's two copper water vessels, with which he went to the spring for water when he was a boy. The damasks I also bought near his town, Anghiari.
Juried into the Oil Painters of America 2017 Eastern Regionals Exhibition.
Private Collection, Tennessee USA
Oil on Linen / 24 x 20 in / 2019 / Private Collection Napa Valley
I love putting avatars in my paintings—-little figures that can participate in the tableau in lieu of me or of someone else. This beautiful clay figurine is by Pavel Kudelich, an old friend /sculptor from St. Petersburg, Russia. I painted this in Russia, in an old communal studio apartment, with the snow falling outside the window.
Oil on Line / 29x36 in / Sold at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
Inspired by a poem by Gregory Orr, the despondent figurine meditates while surrounded by beauty. Flowers, something like a lake, an English teapot and Italian copper watch guard over her while she heals.
Oil on Linen / 29 x 36 inches
I felt the need to ignite a still life, colorwise, and reverse the tradition of calm-background-busy-foreground. The background is the Serithea silk wrap “Dancers,” designed by my husband, Daud Akhriev. When turned on its side, the blue dress becomes the Appalachian Mountains, and the red accents a raging forest fire. A beloved Egon Schiele postcard appears, as well as a favorite rolled stone from Maine, blown glass from Sundance, Utah, copper from Toscana and a Spanish, hand-turned amphora.
Oil on Linen / Approx 15 x 30 / 2020
Private Collection
Soft Pastel on toned Rives BFK paper / 15.75 x 16 inches / 2018
Private Collection
Pastel on Paper / 22 x 30 inches
Winner of the Award of Excellence, Pastel Society of America National Exhibition 2017, Winner of the Mini-Monty Award, Pastel Society of American National Exhibition 2017, Board of Directors' Purchase Award, same exhibition.
My first artwork of 2017. Private Collection.
Oil on Board / 8 x 11.5 inches / Available in the Oil Painters of America Easter Regionals 2020 at Reinert Fine Art, Charleston
The rabbit struck me as upwardly mobile, posing in a reverie with someone else’s riches. Maybe somehow she wandered in from the fields into the palace, and as she was alone there she indulged in imagining the empire as hers, and the world as her oyster.
Oil on Linen / 31.5 x 31.5 / 2019 / Available at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
Like the Queen of Sheba, the figure gathers her treasure, her sages, inspiration, her defences, and strikes out on her vision quest.
Oil on Linen / 40 x 28 inches / Private Collection
The magic rabbit flies again. Imagining the rabbit as captain, leading a fleet of charmed objects into adventure.
Oil on Linen / 24 x 20 inches
My beloved winged rabbit returns in this cacophony of textiles. I think of the little rabbit as an intrepid adventurer, the Fool in tarot cards, who, having little importance with the personal number of zero, adds a ten-fold value to all he touches. Block-printed African fabric, Oaxaca tablecloth, silk scarf by Daud Akhriev for Serithea Silk Scarves. My favorite copper pot from Arezzo.
Private Collection, Tennessee
Oil on Panel / 6 x 8 inches
In Andalusia during summer, afternoons near water are a matter of survival.
Private Collection, Andalusia, Spain
8.5 x 11 inches / Oil on Board / Private Collection
These two friends, the lemon and an estate sale creamer, find their way across turbulent waters, confident because they are together. The tablecloth under them is Daud Akhriev’s scarf “Dancers” for Serithea heirloom scarves. I so enjoyed the reflections in the teapot.
Oil on Board / 12 x 12 inches
It's been years since I painted using electric light, but my new Spanish studio is dark in the evenings. This little porcelain figurine, when set atop bright colors and converging lines seemed straight out of a lapine burlesque show. Silk scarf and tiny silk-and-bone treasure box are from my grandmother.
Private Collection
Oil on Panel / Sold through Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
From my recent month in Venice, using Murano glass and various fabrics hand-printed at Fortuny fabric.
Oil / 16 x 20 / Private Collection Russia
The exuberance of this embroidered runner from Oaxaca filled my studio with dreams of the exotic. I love how the silver almost disappeared in the fecundity of the flowered fabric.
Oil on Panel / 11x11 in / Sold at Cutter and Cutter Fine Art
Lemons are a constant source of fascination to me. They are so seemingly simple, and yet endlessly pleasing. Here I wanted to tweak the “icon” format, where the object of worship is normally centered.
Oil on Linen / 16x13 in / Sold Anderson Fine Art Gallery
I’m so enjoying the refined color in my scraps of hand-dyed and hand-printed Fortuny fabric. Combined with the classic shape and color of lemons, it really sings.
Oil on Linen / 36x25 in / Sold Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
Artists Magazine awarded this painting silver medal in the Best of 2021 for Still Life.
The porcelain vodka fish leaps out the “water,” a silk scarf design by my husband for Serithea. The lemon sidles up for flirtation purposes. Plus, lemon and fish have always been great partners ; )
Watercolor on paper / 8x12 in / Sold at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
I think this one is fairly self-explanatory. Lemon, silk, old mahogony, Fortuny cotton…. I almost never work in watercolor, and I enjoyed the process of thinking in a different medium.
Oil on Linen / 59 x 39 inches / Available at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
The cascading silk sparkles and shimmers like a river tumbling over mountain stones. Besides sits a figure, against a background of butterflies, which symbolize self-transformation.
Oil on Linen / 36 x 28 / 2019 / Available Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
I compose still life tableaux instinctively, by sight. When they are all set up, then I begin to understand their story. Once this figurine was perched atop the cascade of silk, flanked by her bottle-gaurds and their weapons for her defense (the ancient upholstery nail), it seemed obvious who she was.
Ink and Ink Wash on Paper / 11 x 8.25 inches
While in St. Petersburg we were invited to join a small group of old friends who hire a model every Wednesday evening. Amazing models, great fun. I enjoyed experimenting with ink.
Available
Pen and Ink, Ink Wash on Paper / 11 x 8.25 inches
The ink I used was Windsor and Newton "Nut," or maybe "Walnut." The ink surprised me. When thinned with water into washes, the color separated into brown and ochre. I liked the benevolent accidents.
Private Collection, Maine
Oil on Linen/ 36.5 in x 30 inches / Sold at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
Portrait of Clara Olid Jurado: flamenco dancer, veterinary medicine student, equestrienne.
Oil on Linen / 72 x 58 inches / Private Collection
There is an equestrian park in East Tennessee where you can ride horses on the Cumberland Plateau. Here Marie Miller takes her colt Jasper for the first time. I wanted the sensation of the golden hours of late summer with friends. The experience was all about the young horse's curiosity.
Oil on panel, / 12x12 in / Available at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
Can you see the leg? The silk under the lemons is a Serithea silk scarf desinged by my husband, and in the bottom of the painting is part of the leg of a dancer from the scarf’s design.
Oil on linen / 74x38 in / Sold at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
Venice is a remarkable place, all the more noticeable for being entirely pedestrian. Strolling the narrow streets is to observe evidence of the power that the Venetians wielded over the Mediterranean, and as the endpoint of the Silk Road from China. The glass and silks that Venetians created for palaces all over Europe and Asia are on many corners. The palazzos have beautiful facades, but they do not welcome the random traveler. While spending a month in Venice during Covid lockdown, I sometimes felt like an outsider looking in. And I felt lucky even at that. Silks by Bevilaqua and Serithea (designed by Daud Akhriev). Cotton by Fortuny Venice. The object d’art: my own collection.
Oil on Linen / 39x39 in / Sold at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
Hungering for an injection of color and light, I came to this persimmony, lemony and blue still stile. The composition is a form of pinwheel, cantilevers out from the center. I needed the “white” background to temper the carnival colors.
Oil on Linen / 26x21 in / Sold Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
Lemons cut fresh from the tree, fine French linens, hand-beaten copper and a blue chair. Simple, but containing all the fecundity and brilliance of the hot months. A personal favorite.
Oil on Linen / 26x21 in / Sold through Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
Sunflowers command my adoration for the simple, joyful beauty. Heading into the countryside with clippers to heist the blossoms is the beginning of the fun. The chair, the silk scarf and the hazy background seemed the right foil for the yellow flowers.
Oil on Linen / 36 x 29 / Private Collection, Belgium
A contemplative and literary young woman, Brie provided wonderful dialog while her artist struggled with the combination of golden sunset light, abstracting a detailed background, and the likeness of an extraordinary face.
Oil on Board / 12x12 in / Sold at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
My anticipation of seeing the Vermeer exhibition in Amsterdam later late May is creeping into my work. I’m so excited for the historic show. I composed this piece around the rooster feathers, but the green-gold objects horned their way into the story. Fabric from Bevilaqua in Venice. Vase from Daniel Lotton. Lemons property of the artist : )
Oil on Linen / 39x39 in / Sold at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
Awarded “Exceptional Merit in Still Life” by Oil Painters of American National Juried Exhibition, Steamboat Museum of Art, 2022
I read an article about the art of public speaking, and before I knew it the bunny was on a majestic stage of Fortuny cottons, Bevilaqua and Japanese silks and a fawning peacock feather.
Winner of Best Still Life, Oil Painters of America National Exhibition in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, 2022.
Oil on Linen / 16x13 in / Sold at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
The serpentine curve one can draw through the fish’s mouth, body and through the lemons is the real subject of this still life, though the brilliant color was also important. I bought the porcelain vodka fish in a consignment shop in Russia many years ago, not realizing how fertile a subject it would prove to be.
Pastel on Paper / 19 x 28 / Sold at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
The title may seem an obscure choice, but consider the magical fish, golden ball in its mouth, puling the circus horse, pomegranates and fine silks towards an uncertain end.
Debuted at the Amis des Art international invitational in May, 2022 (Montluçon, France), and will be traveling on through 2023 to the Pastel Society of Lyon.
Pastel on Toned Paper / 27x19 in / sold at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
Every year I enjoy painting the daffodils in Tennessee when they bloom at the end of winter. This year I combined them with a stripe motif in the silk scarf and the Lotton vase.