Mary offers All Things Bright
All Things Bright offers an exhibition at Chichester’s Oxmarket Contemporary until March 17 from Chichester artist Mary Carless.
Mary said: “My work is joyful, happy, exuberant and colourful semi-abstract expressionism, containing themes of birds and moons, rich foliage, patterns and images from life experiences, emotions, music and love. I paint for pleasure, and this exhibition will hopefully excite the senses and bring light, colour and enjoyment and lift people’s spirits. My paintings are intended to brighten the often monochrome and minimalist surroundings of people’s homes and workspaces and bring colour and fun into people’s environments. I paint with bright primary coloured acrylic paints on a variety of sized canvasses or paint boards.
"My early love for painting was inspired by my art teacher at Chichester High School for Girls, Roger Gibson who is celebrated in Chichester for creating the Chichester Cinema at New Park. I gained my BA in fine art in the late 1960s at the art department of the University of Newcastle-upon-tyne, sharing a studio with the now worldfamous painter, Sean Scully. And then went on to gain a graduate certificate in education to teach art to secondary children.”
Mary added: “After university I married my childhood boyfriend also from Chichester and we set off on our adventures together, travelling and living in, Portugal, Alabama, Alaska, Curacao, New York and finally settling in Sao Paulo Brazil where we lived for nine years before returning to Chichester to live in the street where I had lived from the ages of two to 18. I gained a wealth of experience and inspiration for my art from visiting, living and working in these places but it was Brazil with its vibrancy, colour, music and art and especially the Primitive paintings and artifacts that inspired my use of vibrant primary colours, exciting patterns and repeating themes of jungles and animals. The colourful Fauve paintings of Andre Derain, the animal and jungle scenes in Henri Rousseau’s paintings, Brazilian Naïve art and the graffiti and street art in Brazil are all influences in my work.