MARY PAGE EVANS
Flowers and Foliage
Mary Page Evans is inspired by art history and the great artists that have come before her like Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse. She studied Cézanne extensively during her art studies, and was first introduced to his work by an art history teacher she had while attending Hollins University in Virginia, she says. Throughout her art career, she’s also had the privilege to be under the mentorship of such talents as Joan Mitchell, Jean Davis and Grace Hartigan.
Evans was originally a music history major before she moved on to visual art. So, for her, these two realms of the art world are like two veins leading to the same beating heart. “I connect painting and music together, there’s color in music...I want the paintings to sing. I love all the arts. Theater, music, all of it. We need it now more than ever,” says Evans. Primarily a landscape painter, Evans always paints in plein air, her compositions derived directly from nature. “I look at a specific landscape and establish its locale...I’m always creating and destroying,” she says. Her aesthetic is one of abstract and impressionist tones, with stylized scenes of conspicuous brushstrokes and loose, flowing lines. “It’s my own interpretation,” she says. “It’s about feeling, it’s all about feeling.”
One of Evans’ ongoing projects is a series of gardens—bright, floral pieces with gorgeous amalgamations of color—and her upcoming exhibition at Somerville Manning Gallery spotlights these works. Titled Gardens Past and Present, it showcases a range of works from 1987 up to 2019.
She’s been painting gardens forever, she explains, with her mother’s own garden and Monet’s garden in Giverny, France, being just a few of her muses. Recently, Evans has been working on a few tropical gardens in Florida, which will also be included in the exhibition, scenery she describes as “very Matisse-like.”
“Gardens have been a major source of inspiration to Evans throughout her entire career,” says gallery director Rebecca Moore. “This upcoming exhibition acts as a retrospective of her garden paintings…Evans uses expressive color and line to evoke the ephemeral quality of movement and light found in the natural world.”
The show at Somerville Manning runs May 10 to June 8. “It’s very timely because it’s in May and Wilmington has beautiful gardens,” says Evans. “I hope it makes [viewers] feel joyful.”
Somerville Manning Gallery Breck’s Mill, 2nd Floor • 101 Stone Block Row • Greenville, DE 19807 • (302) 652-0271 • www.somervillemanning.com