Art on a Postcard x War Child UK 2024 Part I

About

Mary received her Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Painting from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989 where she studied with Neil Welliver, also visiting artist critiques from Bill Jacklin, Harmony Hammond and Red Grooms. She also studied at the Vermont Studio, the Maryland Art Institute, and Ecole des Artsd’Avignon France. Her work is exhibited widely in galleries along the Norfolk coast, in London and abroad. Her work was selected for the Summer Exhibition at Royal Academy, Wales Contemporary, and shortlisted for the Sir John Hurt Art Prize numerous times. She is also an artist educator for museums, galleries and festivals whose workshops delight and inspire the young and young at heart. Most summers you can find her as a regular participant at Paint OutNorfolk, an en plein air competition. She has travelled widely, is a playful adventurer with an insatiable curiosity about the universe that feeds her work as an artist.

My paintings reflect upon the impermanence of life and the forces of nature. I weave poetry into layers of jewel-toned colours exposing the overlooked hidden effects of time. I paint brilliant light and deep shadow, the far horizon and the passing of time. I am drawn to the delicate, the broken, the most fleeting, these are timeless and possess a powerful resonance. At the crossroads of impermanence, beauty remains. “Mary Blue takes you on a journey to identify the traces, the hidden little things, the secrets of nature. Whether it’s through paint, poetry or an appreciation of the landscape and the natural world or through the telling of history she will enable you to find the traces; the footholds that give us a sense of belonging amidst the tide. On the shoreline, impermanence is so clear. Washed away, replenished, removed-the cycles of tides and currents are continually changing the marginal lands ofBritain’s coast. Inland the structure of the land, which we like to think of as permanent, is also subject to continual change. Built, ploughed and settled over centuries the land also changes. Impermanence surrounds us. The seasons and the elements are the true masters. Yet there are traces of previous landscapes, past lives and past dreams still to be found, to give us a sense of place and time.

Select Exhibitions/Awards

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2023

Wales Contemporary 2023

Sir John Hurt Art Prize 2021 - 2023

Inheritance Norwich Castle 2019

Gallery Representation

Gallery East Woodbridge Suffolk

Houghton Hall Summer Exhibition with Contemporary & Country, Norfolk

Abbott & Holder, London

Walsingham Gallery, Norfolk

Padstow Gallery, Cornwall

Statement about AOAP Submitted Artwork

Images of the moon began appearing in my work in 2019. I was inspired by a Rumi quote, ""Thirst drove me to the water's edge where I drank the moon's reflection"". Living so close to the British Coast, I wander in the saltmarsh or along the sea at night. I wait for the moon to rise on the North Norfolk Coast and sketch or draw from life. Recently this past September 2023, I was out in the dunes watching the sun go down, waiting for the full moon to rise, and I thought I could combine them in one image. These postcards are the result. I was inspired by Paul Nash's Vernal Equinox or John Craxton's EdinburghTapestry. The full moon and the sun together in the changing sky become representational of the transience of life, a giving and receiving. The sun is light, pure light. It pours forth and only gives-energy, warmth, beauty, sustenance. The moon receives and reflects. Sometimes it is in just the right position to reflect its brilliance. Even in those moments of brilliance, there still exists the shadowed side

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