2007-2011 (oil paint, charcoal, and graphite)

I enrolled at the Art Students League of New York in 2004, moving away from a career in social services to consider a more creative path. Around this time, I was introduced to Russian realist painting—how I was moved by the color and feeling! The accuracy, expression, color, and composition I was drawn to were the result of years of academic training.

By 2010, I completed three years of study at classical painting ateliers, finishing at The Atelier in Minneapolis before moving to London. I’d spend six hours each day primarily working from life, progressing from copies of Bargue drawings and life models in pencil, to black-and-white charcoal drawings and paintings, to color still-life and then figurative paintings. This was my entry to life as an artist.