A full-time painter since 1979, she depicts wildlife and figures in landscape and works primarily in oil and outdoors "en plein air" on locations. She was born and raised in central California and attended nearby Columbia Junior College. Her first career was as a surgical technician, and she said that the experience she had with anatomy later helped with her art career. Following this, she decided to become an artist and moved to Idaho Falls and then to Jackson, Wyoming where she began plein air painting in 1980. She was much influenced by plein-air painter Conrad Schwiering and John Clymer

She settled in Jackson, Wyoming, where she keeps a regular painting schedule and also gives workshops. Her favorite medium is oil and her subject...