When I look at Mary Pritchard’s paintings I am reminded of the reasons why I love living on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The rural landscapes, the rivers and marshes, and the old buildings which seem to blend in with nature, are all subjects of Mary’s paintings. Her extraordinary use of vibrant colors and saturated pigments of pastel on textured paper, make you want to step into her paintings and explore.
“My mother had left me her pastels. I took literally a three-hour class and it just clicked. It was like turning on a light bulb,” she said.”For me, pastel is the ideal medium.I respond to its capacity for directness, spontaneity and flexibility. There’s no brush. There’s nothing between you and the paper. You just go at it,” she said. “By the time I’m finished, I have it all over my hands, my face, my clothes. Fortunately, it washes out.”
Mary prefers to create her paintings “en plein air” and often spends hours creating a scene on the grounds of local farms or beside rivers. En plein air is a French expression which means “in the open air”, and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors. In the nineteenth century, artists began to step out of their staged studio settings and moved their easels outside to focus on a more natural setting. This led to the discovery that what you saw in nature was not form, but rather light on form. And light could be conveyed by color. To prove their theories, they took their paint tubes and easels outdoors, where they re-created the world as colors which suggested light. Mary is able to brilliantly craft the light in her work not only through the use of color, but also through textured paper. Mary usually begins her drawings on burgundy or deep red paper. “You can use it as a foil to blues and greens,” she explained. “I like the transparent sense when you see through the strokes of pastel. When you get the lights very opaque, they leap off the page.”
Following a career in education administration at the University of Delaware, Mary returned to painting fulltime. Galleries representing her work include Carla Massoni Gallery, Chestertown, Md. and the Station Gallery, Greenville, De. You can view her paintings at www.marypritchardart.com. And some of her works are currently on display at Bishop’s Stock, a trendy art gallery located in Snow Hill, Md. This gallery features fine art, crafts, and wine. You can learn more at: www.bishopsstock.com.