Trash or Treasure Painting

Mary is a self-taught artist who has been quietly honing her skills for most of her life. She began painting with water colour before discovering her passion for pastels. In the mid nineties she married and had two children, and in between being a mum started painting with acrylics. A large part of Mary's creative expression involves telling a story and much of her large scale works reflects this- "My process often starts with asking myself where would I like to be today? and what story do I want to tell? It's usually a wide open space so I can have a look around to see what I want to say. The idea unfolds as I go, the placing of objects determines the next, guided by an overall mood, story and colour scheme that I have decided upon. The imagery that I use is drawn from personal experience, from childhood memories right through to current observations and everyday life.In the landscape format, I can surround m self with things I find interesting and leave out all the clutter that would probably be there in real life." Mary starts with the darkest tones and moves forward to the lightest, highlighting little details along the way and so the finished piece is something that is familiar but at the same time a little strange and unusual. Each work takes many weeks to complete as Mary constructs each landscape from scratch - the perspective, the scale, light, imagery and the colour palette. All her paintings are unique and individual and while her subject matter varies from painting to painting, they all include her distinctive style.