Description
‘Flowing Along’
Image H x W cm
Including frame H 49 x W 49 cm
Collect from gallery £395
Including UK delivery £435
Featuring in our Hay Festival Exhibition 2026 ‘Splendour in the Grass’
opening on Saturday May 16
Mary was born in Birmingham in 1954 and demonstrated a strong interest in art from an early age. She went on to study at Birmingham Art College, where she developed the foundations of her artistic career.
Mary began painting professionally while raising her family and later taught art at local colleges for several years. She subsequently moved into independent teaching, allowing her greater freedom to concentrate on her own creative practice.
Working across a range of media, Mary is particularly drawn to pastel for its immediacy and versatility. She often combines pastel with acrylic or watercolour to create subtle surface contrasts and atmospheric effects. This mixed-media approach is especially well suited to her figure and interior compositions, which remain a recurring focus within her work.
A central aspect of Mary’s paintings is her interest in people and the unspoken language of human interaction. Through carefully observed gestures and moments of stillness, her work captures intimate scenes drawn from everyday life. Rather than presenting a fixed narrative, her paintings invite viewers to form their own interpretations and emotional connections. Many of her subjects appear quietly reflective, conveying a sense of solitude, contemplation, and shared human experience. Her work seeks to present life with honesty and sensitivity while continually exploring new forms of visual expression.
In addition to her figurative paintings, Mary is also recognised for her landscapes and garden scenes. These works employ the same layered mixed-media techniques, combining acrylic or watercolour underpainting with direct pastel application to achieve richness, texture, and depth.
Among the artists who have influenced and inspired Mary’s work are Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, Pierre Bonnard, the Camden Town Group, the Scottish Colourists, and Bernard Dunstan.
Mary is an elected member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA) and the Birmingham and Midland Pastel Society. Her work has been exhibited widely, and in 2006 she was awarded First Prize at the RBSA Prize Exhibition.
