Oil on Linen / 30 × 30 in / Available at Oil Painters of America National Juried Exhibition 2025 in Florida
Many of the “Begin Anew” series feature and mother and daughter rabbit, in honor of my mother’s passing this Spring on the eve of my birthday. Tired of simplified backgrounds, I went for the most baroque piece of fabric I own: four feet of Bevilacqua silk damask from Venice. This painting nearly killed me with complexity, but when the light began to feel as if filtering through a shaded window, then I knew I was on the right track.
Oil on Linen / 60 × 40 in / Available May at Cutter & Cutter, FL
Changes are the current reality in mine and my husband’s life…dwellings, countries, parents…everything is changing. The “Begin Anew” series reflects that. All these paintings are about moving from one life stage to another. Many pieces have mothers and daughters (in animal version) to reflect the death of my mom, Inelda, this Spring. The lushness of the textures reflects my optimism that beauty awaits ahead.
Oil on Linen / 24 × 30 in / Available
One of the first three in the Begin Anew series, about when everything you know is changing, and life is going to be different. I have always admired people who travel light, but with panache. This lapin moves forward with just a giant (beautiful teapot) and her favorite silks.
Oil on Linen / 39 × 39 in / Sold at Reinert Fine Art in March 2025
As my husband and I return to Venice, I have that watery city on my mind. The history, the faded glory, the textiles and crafts, the baroque lushness of it all…. Can you find the time traveler? Fabric courtesy of the Bevilaqua Tessitura family…who have been weaving silk damasks since teh 1400s…
Oil on Linen / 25 × 21 in / Available through Reinert Fine Art
Appearing in “Wandering Spirits,” an exhibition at Reinert Fine Art in Charleston, SC, of new work by Daud Akhriev and Melissa Hefferlin. Exhibit opens March 7, 2025.
This simple painting was a joy to create. The muted contrasting colors embodied a season of bounty, joy and calm.
Oil on Linen / 25 × 21 in / Available at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
Arriving in the gallery in February, 2025. My love of lemons borders on the compulsive. It’s a good thing we have a tree… While I am a lifelong realist artist, I do love the abstraction of it, too. Here the color combinations resonated with my search for joy. I realized the amazing skill of the Dutch Golden Age of painting while working on the lilac silk fabric.
Oil on Linen / 63 × 51 / Available at Reinert Fine Art
“Wandering Spirits” exhibition with Melissa Hefferlin and Daud Akhriev opens at Reinert Fine Art March 7, 2025 in Charleston, SC.
Oil on Linen / 29 x 24 in / 2024 / Available Reinert Fine Art
Recently my husband and I have been making some decisions which have lightened our spirits tremendously. As an alter to the happier direction, I found the brilliant silk cloth apt. The name comes from the phrase "a red letter day," which I altered to reflect my favorite ribbon. A painting to mark hopefulness. Painted entirely from life.
Exhibition opens March 7 2025 at Reinert Fine Art, Charleston
Oil on Linen / 24 x 30 / 202 / Available at Reinert Fine Art
I composed this still life intuitively, hungering for the luxurious textures and saturated color. When I was finished, the silk ribbons draped around the vase reminded me of a man in evening wear, who has loosened his bow tie and is relaxing. The saffron silk came from Rabat, Morocco, in the mid-1800's. I am becoming deeply interested in historical textiles. Things still made by hand...
Juried into Oil Painters of America National Convention and Exhibition, 2024, Wichita Kansas.
Oil on linen / 40 x 30 in / Available from the Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
After several compositions which were highly ornamental, I wanted to set this one with lots of quiet space. While I’m still deeply engaged with the tail feathers, their role is more supporting in this piece. I was remembering Richard Diebenkorn as I placed interest at the edges. When I hung the brass harness ornament at lower right, I knew the title. It felt like hanging a medal.
Oil on Linen / 20 x 24 inches / Available from the artist
Many of you know that rabbits are my avatars in the little worlds I create in my still life tableaux. I stole this one from my sister, the architect Heidi Hefferlin, and I imagine I’ll have to return it someday. I found the tiny wheels so optimisitc. The saturated nature of the lux textiles was comforting to me.
Oil on Linen / 12 x 12 in / 2024 / available at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
The second appearance of a new avatar...the porcelain figurine from Denmark. Placed among textiles worthy of a dauphin.
Oil on Linen / 30x30 in / at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art in 2024
One of my perpetual puzzles is how to compose a frontal still life which is not staid. The explosion of tail feathers, my current love, begins the effort. The samovar, so much like a pecking chicken with it’s extended spout, continues the theme. Can you find the Caryatid?
Oil on Linen / 34x38 in / Cutter & Cutter Fine Art in 2024
As a young reader I loved stories about alchemical efforts. This tableau is my assembly of semi-magical objects from which I hoped to create a result more magical than the sum of the parts. It all began when a friend gave me a bouquet of tail feathers.
Oil on Linen / 30x24 in / at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art in 2024
My son, artist Timur Akhriev, often composes using powerful color fields, but I had not often done so. When my sister gave me this sheet of royal blue cotton, my opportunity sprung to life. The current historic Vermeer show is often on my mind. I think of this still life as a portrait of the samovar, in the spirit of Hans Holbein’s “Sir Thomas More” at the Frick Museum.