Maryanne always knew that art would be a part of her life. As a child, she would spend hours designing and cutting clothing creations for her paper dolls or just playing with colored papers. As a teenager her first oil painting lessons involved copying paintings by the Masters.
With passion for nature and the outdoors, Maryanne directs her focus to painting landscapes, gardens and flowers. When possible, she paints plein air, on location, where she is able to observe the effects of light and color first hand. For landscapes, she says she likes to start outdoors by painting a small study that captures her first impressions of light and color. She then moves indoors and creates a larger painting using the study, and sometimes photographs, as a guide. For her still life paintings, she works from live floral set ups.
Many of Maryanne’s paintings reflect the beauty that she finds close to home. Her paintings depict actual places within the county and state. The parks, arboretums and even highways provide her with a wealth of inspiration for her work. She loves wild scenery and is particularly fascinated with roadside marshes, wildflowers and even weeds. According to Maryanne, there is a sense of mystery and excitement in discovering a patch of grass or a path of light that will translate into a painting.
Maryanne believes that a viewer’s emotional response is largely shaped by light effects in a painting. One composition can become many different paintings if the light in the work is changed. The light in her paintings is diffused but directs the viewer’s eye to one sharper focal point. Her intent, she states, is not to capture a literal representation of what she sees but rather to convey what she feels.
Maryanne attended Parson’s School of Design and received Bachelor of Arts degrees from Fairleigh Dickinson University and Rutgers University. She is a gemologist, certified by the Gemological Institute of America, and for many years, she worked in the jewelry industry.
Maryanne has received numerous awards for her work. She is represented in Pennsylvania by the Bucks Gallery of Fine Art and by other galleries on the East Coast. She is a juried member of the Salmagundi Club and the National Association of Women Artists.