These watertowers are all over the town of Mendocino. Suzi Long's Watertower Art Gallery is a great chance to see the inside of one.
When I chose Mendocino as a safe place to live eight years ago, my primary goal was to become a pastel painter en plein air. This mission is now accomplished with Signature Membership to PSWC, and a pending SM in PSA. After a near-death experience at the end of 2011, insight led me to return to Intimate Portraits of the Sea, a series I began in 2008. The original six pieces sold, and luckily for me, four of these live right next door, so I can visit them periodically! As I recovered, I began painting the sea again, and have been immersed in the foaming brine since mid January, 2012.
The Mendocino Art Center hosted a One-Woman Show for me in July, 2012, entitled A BIG SPLASH, and indeed it was. Recently my ten latest waves are in a 4-woman show at Scharffenberger Champagne cellars in Philo, CA. Mendocino hosted our town's first plein air event in September, 2013, with 87 artists attending from around the globe. I won a second place ribbon for my painting Showing Her Age, an old barn nearby. And in March 2014, I had a show to support these Spring Ranch barns at the little River Inn.
This year I again won 2nd Place Pastels at the MOPO event (Mendocino Open Plein air paint Out).
Santa Cruz, CA, was my birthplace, and I've meandered up the coastline, finally settling in Mendocino. Much of my career days were spent painting murals in Marin and San Francisco, and gleaning some nice press from Better Homes & Gardens, SUNSET Books, and Newsweek. My focus now is the WAVE series, but also the lure of painting the coastline en plein air continues to call me outside. I will always take commissions for murals.
