Marion artist explores interior beauty
Much of Mary Jane McCoy’s artwork focuses on the simplicity of everyday scenes – a beautifully arranged room, a stack of linens on the shelf, or a moment of familial bliss.
“There’s beauty everywhere. We just need to open our eyes to see it,” said McCoy.
McCoy, a mother of four and grandmother of two, studied fine arts painting in college. Later she worked as an interior designer, which shapes much of her work.
In her most recent painting exhibit, which opened at the Marion Art Center on Friday, McCoy displays more than 20 pieces focused primarily on interior and exterior rooms.
“I love trying to create a really strong composition when I paint, so that every single corner and every single aspect of the painting works,” she said.
McCoy takes inspiration from her travels, design magazines, and rooms she encounters, employing palates that range from intense hues to calmer neutrals.
Often using photos as a reference, McCoy said she beings by painting a very basic outline using oil or acrylic.
“That to me is really the most exciting part of the painting – when you’re in that creative process of putting it together,” said McCoy.
McCoy said there’s no tried and true formula for creating a painting. Some take 12 hours, while other might take 40.
The artist, who shares a studio space with her husband in their Marion home, said she often works on more than one painting at a time. When she gets stumped on one piece, McCoy said she often lets it sit for a few days or weeks to get fresh inspiration while working on another.
Rolling back the chair and looking at a painting from a different angle also gives much needed perspective.
“It’s important to step back as you’re doing them because things up close are very different from things at a distance,” McCoy explained. “You always need to make sure that things work at a distance.”
But when a painting isn’t working, McCoy isn’t opposed to letting it go. “Sometimes you might finally figure out what you want to do to make it better, and sometimes I paint over it and start from scratch.”
McCoy’s exhibit will run at the Cecil Clark Davis Gallery at the Marion Art Center from June 7 to July 13 along with New York artist Arthur Kvarnstrom who will exhibit in the Pasty Francis Gallery.
