Oil has been the medium of my choice since I began painting seriously when I was 11. At that time, I also painted with tempera during my Saturday art lessons in the Palette Class at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. Soon I was experimenting with casein and other water-based paints, and later acrylics, but I always returned to oil. I love the vibrant colors and the rich varied textures possible with this medium.

Probably the most important influence of the Palette Class on my work was the emphasis on blending colors rather than using raw color. I prefer not only the mixed pigments but usually the softer, muted tones seen in nature. I've always avoided stark primary colors. I like to believe that this minor-scale handling of color imbues my paintings with an intimate, ethereal dimension. Over time my colors, still subtle, have become cleaner and brighter. I attribute this change to living in Florida, the Philippines, and the Mojave desert—all places of intense light.

Art is an evolutionary process, and I continue to experiment with technique and subject. My early work—both drawing and painting—focused primarily on figures. The human form has always fascinated me, and in the early 1970s I studied portrait drawing and painting. After an extended hiatus from my art—during which I reared children, conducted genealogical research, and wrote—my focus changed and so did my style. Landscapes dominant my paintings now, and my art is more impressionistic with looser brush strokes. This change occurred in 2000 when I painted in Provence with a group of plein air painters.

Of primary importance to me in all my art, whether I am painting people or landscape or still life, is to create an immediate desire in the viewer to learn and experience more about the subject of that painting. Achieving a likeness is less important than exposing the essence of the person or place I am painting. I want to evoke an emotion, preferably a pleasant one, although my goal is not to paint pretty pictures. I prefer my work to be memorable and evocative.