Artist of the Month September 2007

Mary Aslin

Salt Lake City

Mary was born in Salt Lake City in 1962 and grew up in Oregon and Washington. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington, she worked for several years as cartographer designing maps. A wonderful journey as the mother of triplets followed and kindled a newfound joy, energy, inspiration and awareness, which prompted a deeper pursuit into the world of fine art and the study of classical representational painting. She specializes in painting from life, whether it is the still life, the human figure, or en plein aire in the outdoors, preferring to interpret the subject in real time. Most of her richly colored, dramatic pastel and oil paintings are completed alla prima—all at once in one session—in order to capture the immediacy, inspiration and poetry of her subjects.

How and when did you start creating art?

I always wanted to be an artist but could not reconcile making a decent living with being a painter so I got a degree in Cartography (map making) and worked 60 hour weeks in a consulting company. When my children (triplets) were born almost 20 years ago, I was able to stay home and care for them, and I enrolled in an oil painting class one night a week as a break, thinking “finally, I can paint again”. I then took a watercolor class and a few workshops with Carol Orr, Jerry Stitt, and Teresa Saia. Subsequent workshops with Alex Powers, Ned Mueller, and Kenn Backhaus followed. The instrumental growth for me as an artist was and continues to be weekly drawing sessions with a model.

What media and genres do you work in?

I love all media for their unique properties…drawing media, acrylic (for a very large trompe l’oeil mural I completed), oil, watercolor, and pastel, but currently my focus is with pastel and oil. My genre is traditional representational paintings of still life, figures, and landscapes. I prefer painting the figure but, as I must paint constantly and because models are harder to come by than still life elements and landscapes, my primary focus has been still life and plein air landscapes.

Who or what are your influences?

There are so many. Historic influences would be Rembrandt for the drama of his paintings, Toulouse-Lautrec for his lively sketches, Mary Cassatt for her sensitive portraits of women and children, and John Singer Sargent for everything. Contemporary influences and heroes would be Daniel Gerhartz, Richard Schmid, Ned Mueller, Harley Brown, Judith Carducci, Kenn Backhaus, Alex Powers and the contemporary Chinese painters Mian Situ, Xiaoming Wu, and Huihan Lu. In addition to a beautiful idea conveyed with a beautiful design, I always look for excellence in drawing and emotion in the painted stroke.

I had a huge hydrangea bush with beautiful blossoms and some coreopsis in my yard in Washington state where I lived prior to living in California. The petals of a hydrangea blossom are complicated and iridescent, looking blue in one light, purple in another, and almost green silver in another. I arranged the still life and the lighting and started to work. I remember telling myself over and over, “capture the essence, capture the essence”. I was in the throes of raising three teenagers at the time and was tired and a bit down, and yet as I painted, time and reality dropped away. When I finished, I was in a new place and on a new plane as an artist. The essence of the flowers, the composition, the complementary colors, the warm silver pitcher came together in a beautiful painting that went way beyond what I believed were my abilities and vision at the time.

Describe your creative process?

I prefer to work from life, alla prima style. I don’t jump into painting too soon. I will ask myself where my focal point is and what I want to say, trying to visualize the finished piece. I often complete a thumbnail sketch and then visualize the composition on my canvas or paper first, mapping out with my fingers where the elements will go. When working with pastel, I tone the surface, blocking in very roughly the major color shapes. I then “wash” the surface with either water, turpentine, or paper towels. I’ll then stand back to get a sense of the design and whether it works. If it does, I’ll start with my center of interest, “pulling” the elements from the toned background, so that I can make sure that subsequently painted edges and values are subservient and supportive of my center of interest. I don’t usually stop painting until the piece is complete. I have the gift of being a fast painter and that allows me to retain the immediacy, energy, and inspiration throughout the entire painting process. I do tell myself to slow down, observe and make sure I’m not trading immediacy for lack of accuracy.

What are you working on currently?

As I am currently working daily in my booth at the Art-A-Fair in Laguna Beach, which will go through the first of September, I am completing small finished studies from photographs, several of which have sold, as exercises to improve my design, composition, and technique. I am visualizing the direction I want to go with my next pieces.

What are your near/long term goals as an artist?

My near term goals are to pose costumed figures according to the paintings I’ve had in my head for 15 years and then complete the paintings in pastel and oil. Another goal is to complete several plein air pieces, both landscape and still life. My long term goals are to be a better painter and to continue to keep my heart attuned to the good Lord who gave me this gift and to have the courage and tenacity to do what I need to do as an artist, despite failures or setbacks.

Where can people view/purchase your work (gallery, website, etc)?

My work can be purchased at Art-A-Fair in Laguna Beach, California through September 2, 2007. It can also be purchased through my website at www.MaryAslin.com and through the KaeWyn Gallery, 10101 Main Street, Bothell, Washington, www.Kaewyngallery.com.