When I first picked up a brush, it wasn’t to illustrate a story–it was to escape one. 

After years of shaping words into lines and stanzas, I turned to abstract painting to continue my creative expression and discovered something deeply familiar to my poetry writing: a meditative space, a refuge from the world that also made me feel more at home in it.

I don’t paint just what I see; I paint with all five senses. I love the sound of the brush on canvas, the feel of paint on my hands, colours shifting as they settle next to one another, songs in my head sparked by the rhythm of my arms, a memory, a sudden insight, a smile or burst of laughter. When you connect with these pieces, you get to be a fly on the wall in my studio.

Much of my work begins in my garden — a place full of both innocence and experience. I buy plants the same way I choose colour, by feel. Each brushstroke reflects the quiet wisdom of simply knowing. It’s an unself-conscious, playful way of working. The result? Paintings that invite you in, then gently ask you to feel rather than interpret.

In poetry, I told stories. In painting, I step out of the way.

My 2025 spring series is called Painting Who You Are. These expansive mixed-media works are painted on cradled wood panels that my husband built while I was visiting my grandchildren in Australia in March.

When I returned, I stepped straight into a three-day Tai Chi workshop just as spring was bursting into blossom in Kelowna, BC. Travel had sloughed off winter, play with the little ones had relaxed me, and time in the garden grounded me again.

Painting those large white panels felt effortless — an extension of all of it.

These original abstracts are invitations to step into process, and see how each mark was made, almost taking part in the creation of the piece.

This series reflects a life lived through travel, movement, and wonder, always rooted in joy.