Susan Branch - If you do it with heart, that's art

As most of you know, I hand–write and watercolor all my books. I got a very late start as an artist, I didn't paint my first picture until I was 30 years old! I did get an A in 7th grade art class, but it was an elective, and I thought everybody got an A! So I never took another art class. Instead, for creative expression, which I certainly had a lot of (or wanted to anyway), I made practically everything, all my clothes, quilts, pillowcases, curtains, dish towels; I sewed and cross–stitched and embroidered. I learned to love cooking, (eating!), and giving dinner parties. My creativity started spilling over into the garden too. This went on for years and years. Then one day someone gave me a gift certificate to an art store—I bought watercolors and it changed my life.

At first I just decorated my house with my art, but then girlfriends started to buy them right off the walls. Seven years after my first painting I decided to combine my love of cooking and homemaking with my new passion, watercolors, to make Heart of the Home, my first cookbook.