Biography
Born in France to an American mother and French father,I spent most of my childhood in Tangiers, Morocco, where my grand'mother had taken me after my parent's divorce.
I never had a formal art education per se apart from a year spent studying with a wonderful woman artist who painted portraits of very important people in oil and also the most exquisite white flowers in watercolors. I was 10 at the time but her teaching meant a lot to me and I was extremely focused on what I was doing under her guidance. However, it was only for one year so it can hardly be called a formal art education especially when one is only 10 years old. So, I can say that I am basically self taught.
When I returned to France , all I wanted to do was to study at the "Beaux Arts" in Paris. I dreamed of being a student there with other young people who were all going to be famous artists, no doubt! I had a very idealized view of all of this, some kind of fantasy I suppose which came crashing down when I realized that they were not accepting anyone under the age of 18...I was 16 then and I didn't understand why I couldn't simply take the exam...Furthermore, I would have to go and attend another school first before even being allowed to apply. So, I went to have a look at the end of the year student exhibition of this particular school and ...to put it kindly, it was not great...So, that did it...
I then decided to become an actress and thanks God, there is no age limit for that!
So, this is what I did for 11 years, working mostly on stage but doing numerous things on television, screen , I even had a record (as they called this kind of things in the sixties...)
I loved the stage and even though I am perfectly content working with a brush, I have to admit that I miss it sometimes.
Then my father died...I was 27 years old ,no family in France so I took a suitcase and left to be closer to my mother.
I did not know anybody in the acting business here and I had to make a living .This is where my ability with a brush came in handy...I am a reasonably good actress so I managed to bluff my way into getting hired as a fashion illustrator. Needless to say the art director very quickly realized I did not know the first thing about drawing a fashion figure... but I am a quick learner and 6 months later I started to be assigned the large newspaper pages published coast to coast...Apart from fashion illustration ,I did a lot of graphic work: corporate identity, magazine design etc...and finally everything came full circle when I started painting in oil again.
I can paint in almost any style you can think of . Probably because of the actress in me, I looked at this art career as different "roles" and sold lots of paintings done under several pseudonyms , "artists" I had created. This was very interesting and certainly not boring but it was also not very smart because I now look like a newcomer when in fact I have been painting for over 30 years...
I never had a formal art education per se apart from a year spent studying with a wonderful woman artist who painted portraits of very important people in oil and also the most exquisite white flowers in watercolors. I was 10 at the time but her teaching meant a lot to me and I was extremely focused on what I was doing under her guidance. However, it was only for one year so it can hardly be called a formal art education especially when one is only 10 years old. So, I can say that I am basically self taught.
When I returned to France , all I wanted to do was to study at the "Beaux Arts" in Paris. I dreamed of being a student there with other young people who were all going to be famous artists, no doubt! I had a very idealized view of all of this, some kind of fantasy I suppose which came crashing down when I realized that they were not accepting anyone under the age of 18...I was 16 then and I didn't understand why I couldn't simply take the exam...Furthermore, I would have to go and attend another school first before even being allowed to apply. So, I went to have a look at the end of the year student exhibition of this particular school and ...to put it kindly, it was not great...So, that did it...
I then decided to become an actress and thanks God, there is no age limit for that!
So, this is what I did for 11 years, working mostly on stage but doing numerous things on television, screen , I even had a record (as they called this kind of things in the sixties...)
I loved the stage and even though I am perfectly content working with a brush, I have to admit that I miss it sometimes.
Then my father died...I was 27 years old ,no family in France so I took a suitcase and left to be closer to my mother.
I did not know anybody in the acting business here and I had to make a living .This is where my ability with a brush came in handy...I am a reasonably good actress so I managed to bluff my way into getting hired as a fashion illustrator. Needless to say the art director very quickly realized I did not know the first thing about drawing a fashion figure... but I am a quick learner and 6 months later I started to be assigned the large newspaper pages published coast to coast...Apart from fashion illustration ,I did a lot of graphic work: corporate identity, magazine design etc...and finally everything came full circle when I started painting in oil again.
I can paint in almost any style you can think of . Probably because of the actress in me, I looked at this art career as different "roles" and sold lots of paintings done under several pseudonyms , "artists" I had created. This was very interesting and certainly not boring but it was also not very smart because I now look like a newcomer when in fact I have been painting for over 30 years...
