About the artist
As a kid, I loved drawing portraits of women and art was always there in the back of my mind. Through the years and in parallel with my professional carrier as a Financial Director in the US, I got to explore many techniques and several aspects of Art. My first real experience with Art started with B&W Photography.
I loved playing with the lights, shadows and all the gray tones in between. At that time I felt that colors were a distraction taking away the focus from the subject.
I was honored to show my body of work in several solo exhibitions in New York City, Copenhagen, Plovdiv, Toronto and Tokyo and got featured in various magazines including the International Fine Art Zoom Magazine, the Australian Magazine Not Only Black & White and Japanese Olympus photo magazine among others.
After a few years, I felt the need to explore other ways of expressing myself. I started working with other media such as Polaroid transfer, digital photos manipulation, toning my B&W photos via different processes. I then started to take watercolor Painting classes at Pratt Institute and attended live model drawing at Spring Studio in New York for several years.
Two years after moving back to Paris France in 2012 I quit my job as Human Resources Director and moved to Toulouse. I attended one of Penelope Milner’s Workshops on portraiture and fell in love with Pastel Painting.
I discovered landscape painting later with Sophie Amauger and it has become my favorite subject.
I have been studying Pastel Painting with a few others of my favorites painters including Marla Baggetta, Karen Margulis, Corry Coy, Alain Picard, Liz Haywood-Sullivan and Jacob Aguiar. Each of them has a different approach and it is a wonderful experience to discover this medium through their eyes and to meet other people passionate about Pastel Painting.
Pastel is a wonderful and unique medium. These small sticks of pure pigment have become my passion and my obsession! They allow me to Sculpt the lights and shadows in a quick manner to create forms and vibrancy. They really fit my personality. No tools are involved, just my hand playing between soft and controlled marks to wild and energetic marks according to the mood of the painting. It is a daily learning process with moments of discouragement but also satisfaction! It is so rewarding!
Currently I am living in Saint Cirq Lapopie, a small medieval village in the South West of France and get a lot of my inspiration from around that region. My Atelier Gallery can be visited by appointment.
Signature Member of Pastel Society of Eastern Canada, Signature Member of Pastel Society of New Mexico, Member Associate of Pastel Society of America PSA, Member of Southeastern Pastel Society and Red Rock Pastel Society of Nevada RPSN. Member of the Maison des Artistes no 37746. Member of the Pastellistes de France.
Thank you for having a look at my art. All work presented on my website are for sale except indicated otherwise.
