What is your medium now? (oils, acrylic, pastel, watercolor...) What medium have you always wanted to use, but haven't yet? What mediums have you used in the past? Why do you prefer your current medium?

I became a plein air landscape painter because I was a military wife and had 4 children in rapid succession. With every child our quarters got smaller. We were stationed in some wonderfully scenic places in Hawaii, Monterey, Calif. and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The open fields became my studio as well as my escape from the children. (There were no cell phones in those days!) I would take the children to the nursery on base and spend the day painting with friends. I started out working in oils but this became a real problem because I had no safe place to keep them while they dried away from little fingers. When I turned to watercolor my life became much saner. I also joined plein air watercolor groups or created my own which I had to do in Cuba. I paint outdoors because it's fun just like some folks go fishing!

What time of day are you most creative? Early morning? Afternoon? Early evening? Late at night? Which season do you feel most creative? Winter, Fall, Spring, Summer? Why?

I'm a morning person, up with the sun and raring to go. I feel creative all the time. I find something to inspire me in every season.

Though most of us prefer working outdoors, do you prefer a studio where you live or maintaining a separate space? Why?

I have maintained a studio in the Torpedo Factory Art Center for 25 years. I think a woman has to work outside the home environment so she isn't called upon to run errands or washing machines! It makes people realize that I am a professional.

What does your studio look like?

My work space is very cramped but the gallery side is lovely, shows the finished work very beautifully.

Do you listen to music when you are painting? Have a TV on? If yes, what are your favorites? Do you use an ipod when painting outdoors? Or do you prefer silence?

When I am working in the studio I have to have classical music. Because I work in a public art center with common ceilings I have always worn a headset with a tape cassette. Now, I'm thoroughly 21st century and listen to my ipod! When I'm in the field I love the sounds that surround me (unless they are mowing or blowing leaves nearby. In the quiet I can hear the sound of my brush on the paper.

Can you describe a comical situation that occurred during one of your painting sessions that others would enjoy hearing?

I was once accused of being a horse thief. I drove down a narrow road in Middleburg on gorgeous fall day with one of my students. We saw the perfect view just waiting to jump onto the paper, barn, pond, horses and fall colors. There was no room to park my giant Dodge Ram Van on the road. Someone drove out of the estate in a white pickup truck. I asked if it would be okay to just stop inside the gate and paint. They said "Sure". I proceeded to do so. First I got out my camera with my long lens to photograph the horses which would move and I could put in later from my photos. Within a few minutes they were taken into the barn and a man drove down the road from the house demanding to know what I was doing on his property. My student kept assuring him I was a very "famous artist"! He said he saw me with my camera and my big van and thought I was casing the joint to steal his horses! I had ruined his perfect day and felt compelled to put his horses away. He did allow us to stay but drove by and checked on us every few minutes. I'm sure he had my license number and was ready to call the police if anything happened to his horses.

In light of the current world climate, what do you feel is the role of the artist? (For instance, do landscape painters have a responsibility to record nature before it's developed?

I feel I have a role not only in recording the landscape before it is developed but also tho show people the beauty that still surrounds and soclaces us. (Remeber the barns that used to proliferate in Fairfax County?)

When did you first want to become an artist? (And when did you realize you were one?) Did you draw or paint as a child? What were your subjects?

I first became an artist when I was 12 years old and a friend showed me her box of 48 nupastel colors, vine charcoal and charcoal paper. She was going to art school on Saturday mornings at the Philadelphia Museum school of art. In that eureka moment I knew I had to join her. I've never stopped painting since.

Are there any other artists in your family? (including all the arts)

The only artist anyone ever heard of in my family was a great great uncle in Ireland. I was given his watercolor box which my Irish cousins had saved for a century.

How do you feel about art education- the value of a college degree, attending workshops, etc.? Art School vs a liberal arts education? Which path did you follow?

I went to the Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. I think an art school education is paramount in developing as a professional artist