Growing up, I thought the epitome of all accomplishments would be to paint a portrait in oils. Almost every Christmas, I received a paint-by-numbers set and enjoyed every minute I spent on each one. I was 45 years old, when I found out that a friend was teaching oil painting; I signed up right away. From the beginning, it wasn't like I was learning something new, it was like I was remembering something I had already known.

I realized that I needed to learn to draw, so I bought a book on how to teach yourself to draw and spent all my spare time practicing. The feathers painting was a drawing project that I decided to paint.

Collecting and cataloging mushrooms has been a hobby for my daughter and me for many years, so I had to do a painting with several we had seen.

Within 6 months, I had painted portraits of my grandsons.

Decorative Painting with acrylics worked well for me, especially since I also enjoyed cutting out the wood with a scroll saw.

This is one of my favorite pieces. The crock belonged to a dear friend, and the ice cream maker scene is one from my childhood.

Decorative Painting was a large part of my life throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Less than a year after starting classes, I was teaching others to paint at the Carousel Craft Shop, and then at a friend's trophy shop after they moved their business. When the Ice House was ready for classes, I taught there. Then, in 1997, I started teaching in my own studio.