A bit about me.

I have loved drawing for as long as I can remember. I have worked in colored pencil, pen & ink, traditional watercolor, digital painting, and pastel.

When I graduated from Mary Washington University with a B.A., I worked as a cartographer drawing maps for an engineering company and later for the National Geographic Society. I later learned about graphic design and illustration. After that, I was employed for over 20 years as a graphic designer, illustrator, video editor, and animator. 

In 2015, I completed my master's degree in Motion Media Design from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Later that same year, health issues convinced me it was time to change careers, and I created my own business. In 2015, Pendragon Art Studios was born. And in 2017, I became a full-time self-employed artist, painting portraits and illustrations of the animals and wildlife I love and painting pet portraits on commission.

I am a native of the Washington, D.C., area and lived there all of my life until 2021. In April of that year, my husband, our dog, and I moved to beautiful Colorado Springs, Colorado.

My painting process

Except for my pen & ink drawings, most of my work has a digital component. I always start with a sketch on watercolor paper. I then block the colors with watercolor. The next step is to take the watercolor painting and scan it. Then, on the computer, using and Cintiq tablet, I paint on layers of digital watercolor, pastel, or colored pencil. When satisfied with the result, my paintings are then giclée printed on either watercolor paper or canvas. The final step is to take the printed pieces and add acrylic paint, oil pastel, watercolor, or colored pencil, depending on the mood and style of the painting. This process is known as "embellishing." Each of these final, embellished canvases or watercolor paintings is unique, and no two are alike. 

Giclée is a type of printing process that uses archival pigments that reproduce the tones and hues of the original painting. It is a standard for museum-quality printing and will last 100+ years.