The “Unveiling of the Newly Restored Mosasaur Painting” at the Rutgers Geology Museum in New Brunswick, NJ last night was well attended, with over 50 people, on a cold, rainy night in the midst of the winter storm front that was sweeping across the country. This fall, I restored this large (4 ft x 6 ft) painting that I did for the museum in 1977, when I was an art student there. My husband Tim helped me tremendously, building an apparatus to keep this very large painting supported while in the back of our SUV and doing all of the driving (13 hours from Kentucky to New Jersey!) 

Bill Selden, who was the museum Director back then who asked me to do the painting, was there, so it was nice to see him again after 45 years! And nice to meet the current Director of the museum, Lauren Nietzke Adamo, and Julia Criscione, Assistant, who I’d been corresponding with to restore the painting. There was an interesting guest lecture about Mosasaurs by Amelia Zietlow, PhD Candidate and Mosasaur expert at the American Museum of Natural History. 

Also on loan from the nearby Zimmerli Art Museum were two paleo art paintings by Alfred Poledo from the 1930’s. These paintings and many others by this artist used to hang on the upper walkway of the museum when I was a student there. I used to go to the museum often to study these paintings, which I found to be very inspiring, which is why I was asked to paint the Mosasaur! Of course, I also loved going there to see the many exhibits, including a Mastodon skeleton.