Mary Manning
Mary Manning is an artist who works in watercolors, acrylics, and oils, with a twist: she accents many of her works with gold, silver, and copper leaf gilding. She has paintings in private and public collections across north America and around the world. She began drawing and painting in childhood, excelling in portraits of pets and people.
Like Picasso, she developed her own ways to interpret landscapes and people, flowers and birds. She learns from Klimt, Georgia O'Keefe, Rembrandt, Da Vinci, and many other artists, contemporary and classical.
She is a member of the American Watercolor Society, the International Society of Acrylic Painters, the Southern Utah Art Guild, and the Dixie Watercolor Society. She enjoys painting in her home studio and outdoors, carrying her paints and easels with her. She has been elected Vice President of ISAP.
"Nature and the incredible beauties of the West inspire me constantly," Mary says.
After a 34-year
career as an award-winning journalist for the Las Vegas Sun Newspaper (on the
Pulitzer Prize winning team 2009), The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, and
Nature, as well as national and international publications, 10 years ago Mary
began her full time career as an artist. She always drew and painted, first
realistic portraits and then developing her talents in abstract landscapes. She
began serious studies in Chinese and Japanese art and design at the University
of California, Berkeley and then Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. She
studies with acrylic artist Nancy Reyner of Santa Fe, N.M., and watercolorist
Roland Lee of St. George, Utah, Richard Schmid, and Cody DeLong of Jerome,
Arizona.
Her works hang in private and international collections. “I never want to stop studying and trying new materials, methods and movements on paper and canvas,” Mary says.
Recent shows include juried into “Monuments” exhibit in Las Vegas and Mesquite, NV; Zion Canyon Community Center, Springdale, UT; solo show at The DiFiore Center for Arts and Education, St. George, UT. In addition to working on her art, she studies Archaeology, focusing on Petroglyphs and pictographs in the West and around the world. “The artist’s eye is perfect for teasing out these ancient marks left by people hundreds to thousands of years ago,” Mary says.