Artist’s Biography
Mary started formal art training with figure drawing in high school in the late 1960s. Her love of all things art had been sparked by regular Sunday trips to the DeYoung and other Museums in San Francisco with her parents and five siblings while growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Her early formal training was absorbed in learning perspective and composition, form, and color. Mary found a new love with oil and acrylic painting. She participated in various youth and student art collectives where she exhibited and sold several of her works. She majored in fine arts at a local university and after college, without any particular direction, she went on to work at mundane jobs and a ‘not so bohemian lifestyle’ to support her art.
Over the years, Mary secured several short and long term art-related positions where her skills and creativity thrived. She found a new home in digital graphics early in the days of the iMac and became an adept desktop publisher using writing skills she learned while obtaining her paralegal certification. Although those skills turned into corporate applications, she persisted in her love of painting. Mary uses photography and sketching with notes to gain perspective for life in her art. Mary holds that you cannot write well unless you are well read. You cannot create a landscape unless you study landscapes. You must practice every day to keep your skills sharp.
She explains her technique as being overtly mundane, she has no special tricks, great color, some pretty decent composition, and good execution of the subject matter. Currently, many of Mary’s paintings reflect back-lit scenes that give a hint of the changing season and that time may be shorter than we perceive.
Artist Statement--Paintbrush in hand, I chronicle stories still untold; forever on the lookout for hidden passages in everyday life. My challenge is to illuminate the deeper story in a quiet landscape. I stray from well-worn pathways to find myself in the dark undergrowth of forgotten roads. Here, I seek to revive that which has been left to decay. An old building, rusting machinery, or an ancient tree bursting with new life. - Mary Williamson
© Sunnyvale Art Club
