Texas is a state of intense heat and sun. I am struck by the bareness of the landscape, yet amazed by the occasional fertile pockets of life. Here and there, an explorer will find cool areas with tumbled rock, pools of shallow water, sunken vegetation, exotic limestone formations and hidden wildlife. Livestock, birds, and animals survive by wearing the rich and lush colors of the earth. Animals are shy but curious about intruders. Their attitudes and personalities are often the subjects of my canvases. I prefer "plein air" painting, where I haul my canvases, paints and field easel out into the wilderness. In the wilderness, I am often blinded by the sun and thrilled by the changing weather.

Each artist is shaped by his time and geography, as I have been by the geography of Texas. One summer spent in Wyoming last year has allowed Wyoming to seep into my life. Perhaps the vistas of Texas and Wyoming are similar with wide-open skies and long horizons. The Jantel Artists Residency Program certainly struck a resonate cord within me. There in the shadow of the Big Horn Mountains, I painted and explored the life of the locals. What animal life struggles to survive and has benefited under the careful husbandry of the cattleman and the ranchers? All have had to survive depredations including drought, disease and the worst curse of all, the inheritance tax. Through it all, the steady, worthy, dependable horse has remained. How does he fare now? This new age had converted the equine into the pleasure horse, the polo pony, and the dreaded dude horse. Within the shadow, lies my topic; the beauty, the drama and the grandeur of the mountains.

My thanks to Mike and Perk Connell who generously invited me to spend the day photographing their horse ranch. Many of my canvases are of their beautiful animals, with their alert eyes and curious expressions. Many more images are the result of a day on the Rafter Y Ranch, riding a horse along the Little Piney Creek and across a ridge of the foot hills of the Bighorn Mountains. Some of my best topics have come from Philmont, a Boy Scout Ranch in New Mexico, where my husband and I often travel. One summer, I also spent a week in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. I was delighted with the differences within the wilderness of fresh, running water and moss growing everywhere. I carried two cameras around my neck as I climbed over rivers and rocky streams trying to capture all the life around me.

Such grand topics deserve a grand approach of color and sharp contrasts of light and shadow to underscore the emotional atmosphere. I am inspired by Pierre Bonnard's wealth of deep and rich colors so appropriate for the worlds of life in the shadows. Here is where we find dark purples and scintillating reds used with flashes of yellow to make the colors vibrate. His lemon yellow and acidic greens pop and shimmer. It is my challenge to paint fresh life with Bonnard's greens and lemon yellows and contrast them with stimulating darks. I am a colorist and I seek a quality in my work in which the paint parallels the tactile surface it imitates. I want to capture the textures in water, grasses with the nap of velvet, and sunlight filtering through limbs and leaves. I am anxious for my next topic, fresh real and alive with color.