Why I Am Here

I just realized that many of you have no idea what I am doing in China. I came here in 2008 with a group of painters. We spent three weeks painting and photographing in small villages all over southern China. At the time, I was primarily a landscape painter. When we returned home, we had four months to produce up to six paintings to be included in an exhibition at two galleries in Door County, WI: Linden Gallery in Ellison Bay and Barnsite Gallery in Kewaunee. To my own surprise, every piece I painted was of the people I had encountered! This was the beginning of a distinct shift in my focus, and while I still enjoy landscapes and other subjects, my sweet spot is painting people.

I have painted and sold many China-inspired works in the last six years (you can see them on my website). In the spring of 2013 I was preparing new works to send to Linden Gallery and I realized that I was running out of reference material that excited me; this "landscape painter" had not taken nearly enough photos of people on her first trip! I simply came back for more.

I am on a photo tour sponsored by the Linden Centre and led by photographer Doug Beasley. I did not bring my oils with me, just some tubes of gouache and some small boards to paint on. There is a chance that I may not paint at all while I am here, and that's okay.

(Pssst, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. When I learned about this trip, I did not publicize it to other artists. I loved the artists I went with in 2008 and made some good friends, BUT we were all in the same places, taking essentially the same photos and, therefore, painting many of the same paintings - each in our own unique style, but still... I realized this was a problem when another artist and I each placed disturbingly similar images in the same issue of a national art magazine. Hence, I am the only painter on this trip)!