About the same time, my mom made friends with the guy who lived on the other side of the fence, Peter Hunt. He and my mom spent hours fighting over the old pieces of furniture that littered his back yard. People in town would bring him old stuff that he would cut apart and then put back together in a totally different and funky way. Then he would paint all those wonderful peasant designs on everything. My mom wanted to restore and refinish everything. And I just looked on, thinking what a strange man this was. Why would someone turn a carousel horse into a coffee table or an old washtub into a baby bassinet? And then to paint on it besides? That was really too much. Little did I know that years later, I would haunt auctions and garage sales trying to find just that right piece to paint?

I grew up here, met my husband, married, had children and moved away. The Air Force took us to many interesting places, but the best place was a tiny village in the heart of the outback of Australia, called Woomera. We arrived there in the early seventies. There were maybe a hundred American families there with us at that time. We were one hundred miles down a dirt road to the nearest town, with husbands who worked very long hours and all sorts of different shifts. We soon formed little groups to get together for coffee and some camaraderie. We decided that we needed to spend the time learning. Quilting and Tole Painting were mentioned. There were a couple of woman who knew how to quilt in the group and there was a rumor that someone in the village knew about this type of painting. We sought her out and before you knew it, we were involved in both hobbies.

We ordered magazines and books from the States and soon were learning about the Society of Decorative Painters and their teachers. We sent for books by Priscilla Hauser and when Joan Johnson began producing her pattern packet of the month, we were all in heaven! When we returned to the US, I joined a couple of local chapters, and the rest, as they say, is history. I have been involved in painting and quilting ever since. Quilting has remained my hobby, while painting has become my passion. I have written magazine articles, a book, have started doing some pattern packets, and have taught for the last fifteen or sixteen years. In 1991, I received my CDA and have since passed my Master Floral (1997) and Master Still Life (2004). Ah, only one to go!

(Click on each to enlarge)

My favorite subjects to paint are flowers and I am totally fascinated and absorbed with color theory, thanks to my buddy, Barb Watson. I have taken classes from so many of the Big Brushes over the years and have loved every minute of it. I will probably be a Decorative Painter and teacher until the day I depart this earth.

Who would have thought that all those years ago, there was that decorative painter lurking inside of me? Watching Peter Hunt, I would never have guessed it then.

That's my Webmistress, Melinda, on the left and me on the right!