About the Artist

“I love to commune and reflect on life: a mountain topped with snow; a person deep in thoughts of family…even a cup filled with sweet, hot chocolate! I love being “tuned in to the moment”. It is a complicated process to make my conversation (my artwork) with nature, people or things look so simple that others can understand, in a moment’s time, what I see and feel. To hold the viewer long enough so they can also experience and take to heart God’s gift of peace and simplicity...that is my goal at this point in my career.”

She wants to know the "how and why" of what she's observing. Mary is intent on accurately representing what she feels onto the canvas by paying close attention to what captured her initial interest and reaction. The other part of the battle for her is to understand the physics of light as it plays upon the forms. Whether it is a landscape, portrait or still life, she concentrates on making an appealing and accurate painting.

Mary has recently been concentrating on figurative work with models, family, and friends. She will usually let the model relax and establish a pose with which they are comfortable; watching this process aids in capturing the insight for which she’s searching. She works for several painting sessions, always intent on capturing a bit of the soul of the person before her. She loves to visit with the subject during the painting process to gain insight into the person’s life. “Everyone has a story”, as the saying goes, and she likes to see if she can identify some small chapter in that story and put it onto the canvas to capture the model’s mood and essence. It’s a way of making a person speak and come alive on the canvas.

Figure artists Kathe Kollwitz and Mary Cassatt have had a strong influence on Mary’s painting because of their show of tender, sensitive emotions, and their perception of the strength of the human form and spirit, especially of women. Of course, Michelangelo holds a special place in her learning, too. His lack of fear and his confidence are definite inspirations. John Singer Sargent, among many others, is becoming a companion in her continuing search for quality.

Casual notice of Mary's landscapes reveals wide-open spaces and a quietness that have come from many years of hiking, camping, and rafting trips into the deserts, mountains, and rivers of the Southwest. All her landscapes are painted on location in the natural light (en plein air). She searches for and finds the quiet isolation to be a great help in her pursuit of the delicate nuances of the landscape. "Nature has a spiritual richness that I try to reflect in my artwork," says Mary. Frederick Franck, the author of several books about the Zen of seeing and drawing, has greatly influenced her working process. She has learned that she must trust that "the delight in touching and feeling the trees and cliffs on the paper" is going to work toward the success of the painting.

“When I am at my peak of creativity, my paintings evolve as though I were composing a song. I capture my subject by developing a rhythm of looking, seeing, feeling, and recording. I establish a tempo of going "in and out, up and down, around and through"; it's sort of a dance to chase and catch the subject's personality, spirit, and soul. As I converse with the person, the water, the mountains, or whatever I'm painting, a story develops: it's quiet here; I feel alone; she's delicate; he's an "old soul"; what wild red hair; the clouds are so white against the blue sky; it's going to storm, and the wind will blow and change this place into something new. A story forms in my head and goes on and on…until I'm finished. The wet paint on my brush is a baton directing the instruments in my orchestra. I sing and dance with my heart as I apply them to the canvas: directing, interpreting, and sharing my joy.”