2009 was another productive and positive year!

The new gallery affiliations have proven successful, and the other shows and exhibits in which I participated kept me extremely busy.  Again last year the work received a handful of nice awards, including First Place in two-dimensional art at the Evergreen Fine Arts Festival in August, and Second Prize in the Animals/Wildlife Category in the Pastel 100 competition.  That prize will be announced in The Pastel Journal this spring.  It is always gratifying to receive those awards, especially given the quality of work being considered!

Several gallery shows this past fall allowed me to meet new customers and begin to establish what I hope will be long-term relationships with the gallery owners and personnel.  There are already a couple of gallery events scheduled for 2010, and they're listed on the Upcoming Exhibits page.   It's an exciting development in the showing and marketing of my work, but I'm not quite ready to give up the shows where I've exhibited in recent years.  I'm currently in the process of entering several of those events and will be posting new show/exhibit information as it is available.

My travels during 2009 yielded some excellent new reference material, and I am experimenting with some new pastel papers that have recently come onto the market.  It's always exciting to try new products that will enhance the work experience as well as the finished product.  My painting style and subjects continue to evolve, and that makes coming into the studio every day a true adventure, not to mention a great pleasure!

The framing upgrades (handwrapped fabric mats, more use of fillets and larger, higher-end mouldings) that I began using on some of the work last year have been well-received, and I've enjoyed adding those special touches to my paintings.  It was a learning experience since although I have always done my own custom framing, I had never experimented with some of those more labor-intensive parts of framing the work.

The studio remodel is finished, and I'm delighted with the results!  There always remain things to be done, but for now I'll focus on new paintings.

2009 was a wonderful year, and I'm grateful again for my wonderful family and friends. Thank you for your kindness and support.  Life continues to evolve in a very positive way! 

I look forward to seeing many of you this year and hope you'll visit this website periodically throughout the year to see the new work and check the calendar for upcoming events. 

                           Becky