Mary Blue

"Mary’s paintings reflect upon the impermanence of life and the forces of nature. She paints brilliant light and deep shadow, the far horizon and the passing of time.  She is drawn to the delicate, the broken, and the most fleeting. These are timeless and possess a powerful resonance. Her work echoes themes from TS Eliots Four Quartets delving into themes of time, purpose, fragility and meaning.  At the crossroads of nature and man, beauty remains. 

Mary's work explores water-related challenges, gender water related impact highlighting the universality of water without borders or lines on a map. Water unites us all. Inspired by the British coastal tidelands she has painted the Norfolk and Suffolk coast, Pembrokeshire and Anglesey in Wales, The Isles of Scilly in Cornwall and her work encourages viewers to see and feel part of the landscape enveloping them in the tide or the rush of wind. Her work cherishes the natural world ensuring its special qualities are both valued and looked after. Inspiring others to steward the natural world, she translates gathered data such as onsite sketches, the tide table, and scientific research into paintings that engage an audience with emotional resonance. Her work raises awareness of human-induced issues and natural processes connected to ecosystems and environment including: identification of marine flora and fauna; short-term environmental change and focuses on the temporal nature of life and learning to embrace it fully. 

Mary received her Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989 where she studied with Neil Welliver, Bill Jacklin, Harmony Hammond and Red Grooms. She also studied at the Vermont Studio, the Maryland Art Institute, and Ecole des Arts d’Avignon France. Her work is exhibited widely in galleries in East Anglia, including Gallery East in Woodbridge and Abbott & Holder in London and in the USA at the Eisenhauer Gallery on Martha’s Vineyard. She exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2023 and for the Holt Festival Sir John Hurt Art Prize several years running.  Mary is also an artist educator who generously shares her visual empathy. She has travelled widely, is a playful adventurer with an insatiable curiosity about the universe that feeds her work as an artist."