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These were the horses I met in South Dakota on Pine Ridge Reservation. After I painted them I noticed their front hoofs looked like dancing feet. Thus – a chorus line of horses. Someone asked which horse I was. I am the white one.

I was at a Sun Dance in South Dakota. While sleeping in my van I heard horses galloping back and forth in the field in which I was parked. I cut up apples for them and they, very reluctantly at first, approached me and ate them graciously.

A friend started an art show called Buddha Abides. I told several of my friends about it and suggested they submit their Buddha paintings. The night before the submissions were due, I had the thought, “I wonder if I could paint a Buddha?” Here he is.

There is something that infuses you when painting an image of something sacred. To watch peaceful eyes flow onto the page can not be described.

I loved the Mt. Carmel church in Montecito with it’s cacti and succulents and palms surrounding it. I drew it as best I could then came home to paint it. It would not stay tan and brown. It became pink with an orange bell. I call it my wild, passionate church.

My darling dog is a creature of comfort. He always wants more food than is allowed. I imagined him dreaming of dog bones and eating every one.

This was my first painting.

The brightness inside and the dark winter tree through the window, let me know I was Blooming Inside.

My friend, Amy, has a home over-looking all of Ojai. This is her doorway, with her stained glass sunflowers.

There is something about a doorway and the items of comfort waiting for the families return. They all say HOME AT LAST.

These horses, in South Dakota, owned by Lakota Sioux, healed my heart. I have not been able to stop painting them. I have painted this scene five times.

This is my bedroom in my cabin in the high Sierra. There is a river outside that sing’s to me every minute I am listening, and a breeze that rustles the limbs of the trees with it’s pine needle brushes.

One fall, while my husband and I were closing our cabin for the winter, we got snowed in. I was so grateful for this wonderful stove, burning wood so efficiently. I painted the room red for warmth.

Henrietta was not ruffled by dogs, cats or children. She marched right in the house to check on the kibble in the cats bowl, through the house and out the front door to check on the snails in the front yard – every chance she got.

My first attempt to paint my friends cats was awful. They looked like cats from outer space. I rushed to the library and got several books on how to paint a cat. They were of tremendous help.

I once lived in a house over-looking all of Ojai. Every night I looked out over the valley and saw the lights of the street lamps and the bright stars. This was the view.

My friend Hope collected these dishes and they were displayed in a hutch in her dining room. The original painting sold to a woman whose grandparents collected pottery just like this. I now offer it by print.

This painting was a series of mistakes. It taught me that everything that seems like a mistake adds character if you are just brave enough to keep going. I first drew shamrocks on the wall, then put white-out over all of them. Globs of white wouldn’t do so I painted it all turquoise and put the bed in a lotus pond to draw attention away from the wall. Marco Polo slept through it all.

What a joy to watch a painting emerge. The deep red wall sets off the orange chair next to two cats proudly sitting on a yellow table. All that was missing was Hollyhocks. But not for long.

This meditation yurt at Esalen at Big Sur, was in the middle of a rushing stream heading for the ocean.

I fell in love with the meditation yurt at Esalen. The first painting was from afar, trying to get it all in at once. When it was done I was not satisfied. I wanted to paint it bolder. It was such a bold place; all beams and cushions. It is bold business, facing the chaos within.

I was trying to loosen up with my painting and used as my subject, a shell I’d had for years. It was great fun to try the different colors. I loved the sensual shape, and the soft pink interior. I realized, as I was painting it, that it was another kind of home.

I was trying to loosen up with my painting and used as my subject, a shell I’d had for years. It was great fun to try the different colors. I loved the sensual shape, and the soft pink interior. I realized, as I was painting it, that it was another kind of home.

I have carted this Christmas Cactus around with me for over 10 moves. I consider a plant to be part of the family. Marco Polo is not part of the family, he is the family.

There was a painting in my husband’s parents house of his mother when she was in her teens in her first formal dress. I had never painted people, but I liked “June” and June liked that I had painted her.

There was a painting in my husband’s parents house of his mother when she was in her teens in her first formal dress. I had never painted people, but I liked “June” and June liked that I had painted her.

I was trying to loosen up with my painting and used as my subject, a shell I’d had for years. It was great fun to try the different colors. I loved the sensual shape, and the soft pink interior. I realized, as I was painting it, that it was another kind of home.

Three Hens on a pebble path.

Wyn and I lived in this cottage for a year and a half. No one had lived here for years so the lawn was dead and the gophers had taken over the place, but one morning, purple stalks began popping out of the ground. Within a week there was an entire field of Pink Naked Ladies every where you looked. How could I not paint them?

After a family drama I came to the beach to paint the pier. A girl from Kansas left the sidewalk to see what I was doing. I felt apart of a larger world there, in the open air, a larger family – a larger home.
After a family drama I came to the beach to paint the pier. A girl from Kansas left the sidewalk to see what I was doing. I felt apart of a larger world there, in the open air, a larger family – a larger home.

I had the thought, “You have never painted people.” That very day I painted “friends”. They are having so much fun.

This was not my house. It was a friend’s where I went to do Qigong. I loved their style. I added the cat.

This chair had two messages for me, “You are blooming inside,” and, “Sit down and rest.”

I watched my husband bring in the tree and set it up and light it. He had done the same thing to me for the past ten years.

While painting the items in my living room, I realized I had collected the world and brought it home.

This bathroom is situated at Esalen on Big Sur. The dramatic sea images everywhere you look make you wonder, “Why did she paint the bathroom?” I liked the graffiti.

Here is a painting of a shower at Esalen on Big Sur. You can see the sea right out that window.

This is a dramatic view of the bell-tower at Mt. Carmel Church in Montecito, CA.

This was the courtyard of Mt. Carmel church. I have seen many wedding parties waiting here to enter the church, presided over by Mother Mary and St. Francis.

I never painted a wall turquoise, nor did I buy an orange carpet or allow candle wax to drip off the coffee table. Perhaps it’s time.

This prayerful art was for my grandson, Tiger. I collected sticks and made a mobile. Then I tore up strips of bright cloth and wrote prayers to the Ancestors for his protection. When I was done, the strips of cloth floated in the wind, hanging from the sticks from the river – praying.

This bed was not red, but it did look out on the garden at Topa Topa in Ojai, the house we shared with Henrietta, the chicken, and friends. The fence out the window protected the chickens from the dogs before they got along.

This painting has many different levels. It is our psyche. There are stairs going down, the main room and outside. What message does the bird have for you? The young babies are vulnerable and asleep on a chair, knowing nothing of life. Looking at it look at me I held my breath.

Romeow, curled up on a chair with cushion

This is the only painting I ever did for the sole purpose of being a card for Valentine’s Day. I have been at birthday parties where this card was given. When you put something out in to the world, you have no idea what will be done with it.

Copying Van Gogh’s painting, The Reaper, I discovered how he used brush strokes to create a feeling of energy whereas I had always used color. This has been an invaluable lesson.

While attending a Sun Dance in So. Dakota, I met some Lakota horses in a field. I cut up apples and they graciously ate them from my hand. I have painted this scene five times though they never come out the same. Some wild spirit of these horses entered me. I can’t stop painting them.

I put this pine armoir together and sanded and varnished it myself. Then I wondered what it would look like red. On the shelves were my husband’s pottery, a Georgia O’Keefe print on the wall next to it, and of course my dog, Marco Polo. He was happy I was painting, not drumming.

I always wanted to add more than would fit properly on the page. That’s why the dog bowl is up in the air. I wish we had stayed right here with the chickens clucking peacefully in the back yard. But no, my restless spirit could not stop looking for just the right home.