Artist Bio

My birth name is Mary White. I was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1948. My formal art education began in High School, where I took public, as well as private lessons, with renowned California Watercolorist Caesar Hernandez. While still in high school, I received a scholarship to attend Chouinard Art Institute where I worked from live models every Saturday from Oct 1964 – May, 1965. I also studied Life Drawing, Painting and Design extensively and received another scholarship to attend Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, where my formal education included sculpture, design, life drawing, painting and philosophy. Aside from formal classes, I also studied privately with some of my Otis instructors, namely award winning author, artist and teacher, Joseph Mugnaini, from 1968- 1971, Bentley Schaad of The California Modernist School, from 1968-1971 and Social Realist artist and teacher, Charles White, from 1968-1971.

I left college prior to getting a degree as I sensed the formal education began to somehow impair what was already complete inside of me and I pursued my own interest in art. Although my passion has been wildlife, I found my in-depth studies of human anatomy in my formal education helped me draw and paint wildlife spontaneously and confidently. However, I put my art career on hold from 1976-1990 to raise my family and, since I began painting again in 1990, my worked has evolved in a more impressionistic, bold manner. My philosophy is simple. I paint what I see and as it is impossible for the human eye to focus, in detail, on more than one aspect at any one time, my paintings have very little detail, but instead depict what I see and feel as honestly as I know how to express it. I combine wildlife with the habitat in which I observed that particular animal, and sometimes I paint solely landscape or ranch scenes. 95% of my work is oil on canvas, but I also do etchings and pastels and am in the process of learning the art of encaustic painting. Many of my oil paintings are done on location. I spend a great deal of my time observing, painting, and sketching wildlife in Yellowstone and surrounding areas. I paint what I know and I strive for simplicity even though many of my paintings are highly textured. I am inspired by ancient cave paintings, which honor the animals and also, to me, the texture and surface treatment is as significant as the subject itself. My canvases range in size from 4 x 6 inches to 6 x 8 feet. I enjoy doing diptychs and triptychs, and have recently begun painting on canvas combined with wood. In general, I believe all art is an experiment, the process of which is more important than the end product, and that's when a painting "works" for me.

In July 2005, the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson purchased Mary's painting The Mystic Forest, which was accepted into the Artists for a New Century II exhibit in the spring of 2005. The painting will remain part of the Museum's permanent collection.

Publications

Wildlife Art Magazine, Jan/Feb 2003
Southwest Art Magazine, Artists To Watch, June 2003
Wood River Journal, Idaho, Jan., 2003
Wood River Journal, Idaho, Feb., 1996

Upcoming Exhibits

One Person Show: Meyer-Milagros Gallery, Jackson WY Sept. 2005
"Art For A New Century II." National Museum of Wildlife Art May 2005-October 2005