I've been painting primitive folk art and selling it on ebay since June of 2001.

Soon after having our first son my husband and I decided to move away from the Toronto, Ontario city limits. We found the historic village of Schomberg, Ontario, and there we began renovating an old 1800's house. This is also when my artistic endeavours began.


This is a picture of our charming old house, the outside still needing more board and batten.

I wanted to be able to stay home to raise my boys yet I needed to earn an income. My creative ventures began by making primitive wreaths. Children in toe into the back woods I would go. Wearing overalls, work boots and with cutters in my pocket off to harvest wild grape vine. I would twist and turn the vines right out in the woods to make free forming wreaths. While there my young son and I would pick flowers to bring back to dry in the shed.

The wreaths turned out to be very popular. I decided to contact Toronto's City TV to appear on their CITYLINE show. They got back in touch and soon the producer and film crew were on my doorstep. The segment was taped and when it aired I found out that Martha Stewart was to be the guest that day. To my sadness however, due to weather issues or scheduling she had to be rescheduled!

During this time I used to go to many outdoor shows selling wreaths, painted signs, homemade jams and herbal vinegars. In 1995 my hometown of Schomberg held it's first "A Main Street Christmas" . I offered to paint a poster to help advertise the event.

I ended up painting six promotional posters in all from 1995 - 2001. ( pictures of the posters coming soon) Realizing the popularity of the posters I began to put some ideas on canvas and decided to sell my art online. Of course at the time I was living in our old crooked house and this must have influenced my style. To this day my folk art paintings reflects the same quaint and quirky heritage.

When I paint I never make any preliminary drawings on the canvas. First, I study what I am about to paint and try to visual the images in my head. When I feel the time is ready I just start to paint. Of course I have made many mistakes, changed many colours as every painting becomes a learning process.

Painting winter scenes is a favourite. Many of the paintings have children pulling sleds, skating on ponds and playing hockey. These scenes come naturally as they are all childhood memories. When I think back there were many times I had frozen toes and not enough sense to come in from the cold. But then I wouldn't have that memory!

Currently, I reside with my husband and two sons in a quiet corner of South Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

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ABOUT ME page last updated: July 1, 2009