Studio News

Artist Statement

I will pursue beauty all the days of my life.

I am the sole creator of my oil paintings.  I work on gessoed, untempered, masonite panels, with the medium of Water Miscible Oils that wash up with soap and water. Classical painting was my love, then  the ability to hold a brush was lost to me due to a right-sided tremor, that was13 years ago.  It took 5 ½ years to relearn how to make the painting work again.  Finger painting is the way that was to happen.  For some of the fine facial detail with strokes that are too small for my fingers or knuckle’s I do use a brush. I use one of 12 prosthetic devices that I have invented so that the works are 95% finger, and 2 to 5% brush to do this.  I listen to wonderful Flamenco and Latin music to help facilitate this and keep my shoulder dexterous as I paint with my shoulder and bypass my hand.  So each painting becomes a bit of a dance.

My background has been classical realism and the shift to painting with my fingers has been a fairly long, but successful, process. It has made me realize that everything does not need to be rendered tightly to be effective. My public is teaching me that allowing God to be my strength in this malady is an encouragement to them.

I am also fully involved in the photographic and print process.

The figures have been painted in my studio, and the models are local girls that are somewhat classical in appearance and work well for me and with me. We have become friends as well. The paintings have the flavor of Newport, NH and are from reference photos taken close by on the Sugar River. They reflect the peculiar phenomenon of our clear Northeast light. When I am at outdoor shows throughout New England or the Mid West it is this light that identifies me as a New England painter.

For the outdoor portraits I photograph profusely. The model will rarely be able to hold the pose for as long as I need. Generally it is 300 or 400 photographs that I have to choose from.  I work only from my own photos, and have retired from portrait commissions. The genre portraits are figures in domestic or country scenes.  The moments in my childhood, when I  remember lying in the grass or turning my face towards the sun, are moments that many of my viewers profoundly indentify with and  recall doing as children.  In that time of life when things were safe and there was a purity and an abandon, is a strong theme in my work.  My figures are strong interior portraits that make you wonder what they are thinking. I try to make the viewer personally connect with the figure, whether it is an eye connection, or emotional or experience connection. 

Fifty percent of my landscape paintings are plein air, the other half is studio work. If I can work outside, in a two-hour period that allows me to stay within the range of light, I can make most of the necessary color notes that I need to do a larger studio piece.  These color notations keep me fresh and true to the actual light effect, and infuse the presence and vision of the viewer into the painting.

My theme’s are quiet, still, silent reflective moments. Perhaps it is because my body is not still. My spirit might be and my soul might be, but my body is not going to catch up. Desiring this stillness is perhaps why I can make my viewers long for that quietness in our fast-paced busy lives.  It is time to breathe deep and slow down…..inhabit the place where a painting is ……… and abide restfully in something beautiful and calming. 

I am always delighted to answer questions.

Mary Jane Q Cross

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