Artist Background

My art instruction began in high school with teacher Peter Burke, aka. Smilin' Pete. His art classroom/studio adjoined my school's makeshift infirmary on the first floor of an out cottage on campus. Nurse Featherston, a legendary shapely twenty something, manned the infirmary. During her first month employed at  VES, an all male boarding school at the time, sick visits were unprecedented to the point there was a line outside the building every day. At this point,  Leave Master Mac McCormick, curious as to why everyone was sick and absent from his English class, stepped in and started pre-screening patients to determine if their “ailments” justified a visit to the nurse. Consequently, Nurse Featherston's busy work load slowed to a trickle and to escape the monotony of reorganizing Band-Aids and medical tape on the infirmary shelves, she often found her way next door to Smilin' Pete's art class - soon becoming a de facto assistant. Suddenly, VES witnessed its own art renaissance. Passion for the arts mysteriously spread through the student body like an epidemic, and overnight there was a year long waiting list just to get in art class. Even those who couldn't get enrolled would often stop by to gaze at the wonderful "art". Smilin' Pete's art program exploded to the point the board of trustees budgeted and completed a brand new art building on the other side of campus my senior year.


A few years later in college after spring semester grades were mailed home, my parents arrived at my apartment with a moving truck. Home I went and was enrolled in a local school with the ultimatum of 18 hours of straight A's in any transferable courses I chose or no return to Chapel Hill in the Fall. It was art to the rescue again and luckily I was graded on effort rather than results in my classes and was able to return to school the following August.

That was all long ago, but recently I have picked up the brush again for the sole pleasure of putting my favorite subjects on canvas and panel that abound in eastern North Carolina. Within the past year I have joined the American Impressionists Society and completed workshops under several nationally known artists, such as Lori Putnam, Joshua Been, Larry Moore and Ken Auster. I have also studied under regional artists Jaquelin Perry, Jane Perry, John Silver, and Fred Saunders. Recently, my painting, Two Oreos, won Best in Show in Bertie Arts Council Juried Contest 2013 and "Creek Haven" won 1st Place in the Juried 27th Annual Landmark Show and Competition 2013.

Thank you for your interest, and I hope you have fun viewing my work and reading about the inspiration behind each painting.