Join painter Mary Brooking – the Gilley’s May 2023 People-Nature-Art speaker – for this special event at the Gilley. Using acrylics, Mary will demonstrate techniques for a creating sky-scape with birds flying. Participants will observe and paint along with Mary. All materials will be provided for this “quasi-class.” Participant numbers are limited. 

Mary enjoys exploring the way colors, textures and compositional form interact with the human senses on a primitive level, testing the balance of reality and abstraction in the context of the Maine landscape. The viewer is invited to enter these spaces mentally and emotionally. Mary's work has been characterized as “expressionist landscape.“ Acrylic paint as a medium forces immediacy and speed in execution, which fits Mary's style and temperament. For Mary, there is no right or wrong approach, no “getting it” or “not getting it” about subject matter - there are only layers of thought, which may sometimes be beautiful. Mary received her B.A. in Fine Art from Hiram College in 1978, cum laude. A 20-year career in graphic design and illustration preceded her present incarnation as a fine artist in Maine.