Nature provides Norma’s favorite subjects close to where she lives--the beautiful East Bay hills of Northern California. The lush golden grass, oaks and eucalyptus, ranches and vineyards, and the shadows of Mt. Diablo have given her inspiration for years to come. She finds it exciting to be able to share her love for the area with the viewer of her paintings. Raised in the flat San Joaquin Valley, a move to the Bay Area 45 years ago changed her outlook on painting completely.

Norma regrets seeing our beautiful landscapes disappearing to ‘progress.’ Over the years, she has taken bad snapshots on roadsides and out of car windows and now finds these faded photos invaluable in recreating “what once was.” In the meantime, she is painting as fast as she can to record our beautiful vistas before they are permanently altered and nothing is left of our landscape to paint except photos.

Norma has been fortunate to make several trips to other countries to paint. Southern France, Spain, Portugal, and Mexico were beautiful painting locations. Italy especially implanted itself in her heart; on several trips she sketched and painted in tiny hill towns, in Venice and small villages and cities. In truth, however, she is always happiest when painting subjects near home in beautiful Northern California.

A signature member of the Society of Western Artists, Norma is active in the Pleasanton Art League, the Livermore Art Association and Alamo Danville Artists’ Society. She has been pleased to be invited to participate in Scene on the Strait in Martinez for several years. Other art festivals she does annually are Art in the Vineyard at Wente Winery, Art Under the Oaks at Livermore’s Alden Lane Nursery and Art in the Park in Danville. She exhibits in the LAA Gallery in the historic Carnegie Building in Livermore and in the Blackhawk Gallery in Danville. Norma has been in national shows, received many awards in major juried exhibitions and has had several solo and group shows. Her paintings are in private and corporate collections throughout the United States and abroad.