Mary Carless will be exhibiting in the Wilson Gallery at Oxmarket and we are looking forward to her vibrant and unique work being with us for two weeks. Mary’s 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. 

Mary gained her 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 world-famous painter, Sean Scully. And then went on to gain a Graduate  Certificate in Education to teach Art to secondary-school children. 

After University, Mary married her childhood boyfriend also from Chichester and they set off on their adventures together, travelling and living in Portugal, Alabama, Alaska, Curacao, New York and finally settling in Sao Paulo, Brazil where they lived for nine years before returning to Chichester to live in the street where Mary grew up.

Mary gained a wealth of experience and inspiration for her 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 her use of vibrant primary colours, exciting patterns and repeating themes of jungles and animals. Her love of the Fauve painter Andre Derain, the painter of animal and jungle scenes, Henri Rousseau, Brazilian Naïve art in the the Museu Internacional de Arte Naïf do Brasil (MIAN) in Rio and graffiti and street art are all influences in her work 

Mary paints for pleasure, and hopes that this exhibition will excite the senses and bring light, colour and enjoyment to lift people’s spirits in these often troubled times.