fine art ...paintings ...murals ...faux finishes

Welcome to my website. Let me introduce myself. I was born in New York in 1950; grew up near the beach on Long Island. I have always loved to paint and picked up my first techniques at age 3. After two years at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design), I spent ten years studying and teaching meditation. Then, my career went back to the arts, with some dance on the side. I moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming in 1995, and return to NY to spend part of each summer in Montauk.

I love nature, the outdoors, the sky, wild animals and birds, the ocean and the mountains. My favorite times of day are sunrise and sunset; my favorite seasons are fall and spring, in-between times when change and movement are in the air. This is what I am inspired to paint: movement around a still point. Please check out my Landscape Gallery. The work pictured here is all done with oil pastels on paper with some acrylics used as an underpainting. Most of the paintings are done on location, all in one sitting. A few of the more detailed ones are studio work. Sizes range from 9” x 12” to 24” x 32”.

Since 1987, I have had a career in decorative painting . You can find a sampling of my work in the Faux Finishes and Murals Galleries. These photographs represent a fraction of the many projects I have completed: walls, ceilings, floors, kitchen cabinets, furniture, marbleizing and woodgraining, etc., in hundreds of homes in NY and Jackson Hole and many points in between. My work has been featured on the covers of House Beautiful (April 2002) and Interior Design (May 1991). When I paint in a home, I work with the client to find out what they envision for the space, I get a feeling for their dreams, then I translate their creative ideas into paint and color. At the end of a successful job, I love hearing, “It is just what I imagined but even better than I could have imagined.”

Look in my Portrait Gallery to see some of my favorite work: paintings of children, some old friends and a few self portraits. These are oil pastels on paper, with acrylic paint as an underpainting. Many of these are done from photographs which I have taken with talent inherited from my mother, photographer Kathryn Abbe. I used photographs she took of me for some self portraits ( Baby, Beachtowel, Cindy 2 and Wet Hair). I count on really good lighting and a glimpse of the person’s inner essence to make these portraits successful.

If you love animals, you may want to look at my Pet Portrait Gallery first. These are all paintings of someone’s beloved pet, commissioned to capture the personality and spirit of each dog or cat. The sizes range from 6” x 6” (Ming) to 19” x 24 (Benji and Bob and Curly). I will be happy to work with you on a painting of your pet, from your photograph or mine. Contact Me to get the ball rolling.