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Floral Contemplations. The Duality of Vision. New Work by Mary Ahern at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum 2018

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Mary Ahern Studio with Work in Progress for show at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum

My studio was overflowing as I created new work for my show at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum

Mary Ahern brought her award-winning style of floral and garden inspired art to the Bayard Cutting Arboretum from May 17 through June 17, 2018. Three galleries of her floral portraits were on display at the historic Manor House at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Great River NY.

Mary Ahern, known for her brilliant floral and garden paintings was showing her latest large-scale flower portraits. As a passionate gardener who is inspired by the gardens she designed and tends surrounding her own studio, these flowers represent to her a microcosm of the universe. The large scale of these individual portraits asks questions beyond the canvas.

What is the purpose for such magnificence in nature? What is the reason for such color, such form, such diversity? What is their relationship to the communities in which they belong, their relationships with other plants and species that sustain them, invade them and nourish them. What of their lifecycle of birth, growth, senescence and rebirth? As humans, what can we learn from their seemingly simple existence?

Initially we see with our eyes. We name it, identify it and classify it. But we also have a duality of vision which allows us to contemplate with an inner vision. This art invites both the external and internal views.

Floral Contemplations. The Duality of Vision

New Work by Mary Ahern

May 17 – June 17, 2018
Bayard Cutting Arboretum
Historic Manor House 
440 Montauk Highway Great River NY 11739

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My Garden. My Muse.

My muse, is my garden. Other gardens as well, but my garden in particular. I move in it, feel it, and hear the breezes whisper through it. I watch the lighting during the day as it slides over and around the textured surfaces.

Fire Flame Peony Fine Art Painting by the Artist, Mary Ahern

These Fire Flame Peonies bloom in my garden each year in May at the same time as the color matching azalea.

Lighting so different on days with sun and with clouds. Lighting in the spring with the bright yellow greens of optimistic new growth and lighting by the fall with ambers & tans of a lived life. Morning light offers tender ambiance while afternoon colors not only light the scene from a different direction, the colors are deeper and warmer.

My garden brings consciousness and meaning to me. It keeps me grounded. The ephemeral beauty of an unfertilized blossom studied up close with magnifiers and macro lenses is a representation of a miracle. The world of possibility. The beginning of a story I represent in my Art. I walk through my garden gathering ideas. Stories I want to tell. Suggested ideas I want to convey.

In my garden I spend time designing the landscape or I spend time closely and intimately with a singular specimen at a particular stage of growth. In my studio I may paint a vignette or a full landscape view of a part of the garden I’ve designed, or I may choose to paint a small portion of one flower that has moved me. The minute miracle. This is my work. Outdoors and indoors. These are the stories I tell. This is my Art.

Fire Flame Peony

These Fire Flame Peonies bloom in my garden each year in May at the same time as the color matching azalea.This and other pieces of my Art can be purchased in various sizes on canvas, fine art paper, metal and acrylic in my online Art Shop.

 

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Pink Floral Prints to Help Komen Breast Cancer Research

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Buy either of these Designer Prints and

I will donate 20% of the Sale to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

I promise!

Kansas Peonies or Bleeding Heart – Designer Prints

Purchase either one of these Designer Prints in any size and I will donate 20% of the sale to Breast Cancer Research. Guaranteed!

Kansas Peonies by the artist, Mary Ahern. Art print available in various sizes on canvas, fine art paper, metal or acrylic.

Kansas Peonies. Designer Print ©Mary Ahern. Art prints available in various sizes on canvas, fine art paper, metal or acrylic in my Art Shop

 

Bleeding Heart by the artist, Mary Ahern. Art print available in various sizes on canvas, fine art paper, metal or acrylic.

Bleeding Heart. ©Mary Ahern. Art print available in various sizes on canvas, fine art paper, metal or acrylic.

Why I am making this offer.

First of all, I have too many girlfriends who have been afflicted by this disease. Neither age nor healthy lifestyle choices seem to have deterred this onslaught.

I am angry and disgusted!

Why these two flowers?

As I traveled to various states doing Fine Arts Festivals over the years, I realized that an unusual number of women were buying these pretty pink flower prints for themselves, their sisters, mothers or girlfriends. During conversations, I began to be aware of how many of my Pink Botanical Prints were being given as gifts to women struggling with Breast Cancer.

I decided to do something about it.

I will donate 20% of the profits from the Sale of either of these two Floral Prints to the Komen foundation to go towards research to help find a cure for this dreaded disease.


When I returned to the Mystic Outdoor Art Festival a year after my previous visit, a customer stopped by my booth to tell me that she had bought a large framed Kansas Peony piece from me the previous year and that she had hung it opposite her bed so it would be the first thing she saw each  morning during her challenging year.
I was so moved by this. I was proud to support her in her struggle.

Order either of these prints in whatever size you choose from me directly and I promise to make the appropriate donation to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation.

Visit my eCommerce Shop to make your purchase.

Wikipedia Information About The Susan G. Komen Foundation.

The Susan G. Komen Foundation gives so much help and supportive information to women at their most vulnerable time!

Susan G. Komen for the Cure is an organization supporting breast cancer research. Since its inception in 1982, Komen has raised over $1 billion for research, education and health services, making it the largest breast cancer charity in the US. Komen has more than 75,000 volunteers nationwide — 122 affiliates in the United States (47 of 50 states) and 3 in other countries.

Susan Goodman Komen was a woman from Peoria, Illinois who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 33 and died three years later, in 1980. Komen’s younger sister, Nancy Goodman Brinker, feeling that Susan’s outcome might have been better if patients knew more about cancer and its treatment, and remembering a promise to her sister that she would find a way to speed up breast cancer research, founded The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in Komen’s memory in 1982. In 2007, the 25th anniversary of the organization, it changed its name to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, created a new logo, and adopted the explicit mission “to end breast cancer forever”.

This information initially supplied by Wikipedia.org c.2013

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Frans Hals Daylilies With Rudbeckia

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In my late summer garden this dramatic combination of colors occurs when the daylillies bloom amongst the rudbeckia. This cultivar name is “Frans Hals” daylily so how could I not fall in love with it given my Dutch heritage. The rudbeckia is the classic variety named Rudbeckia fulgida and multiplies happily in this garden setting.

I composed this painting in a classical pyramidal style for the daylilies then using the receding rudbeckia to open the space towards the background of trees and shrubs serving as a horizontal and vertical balance.

Frans Hals Daylilies with Rudbeckia

Frans Hals Daylilies with Rudbeckia 

Click here to visit the Art Shop where you can buy this artwork in various sizes and treatments on Fine Art Paper, Canvas and Metal.

Use the augmented reality feature to view how the work will look in your location. It’s fun!

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Choosing a New Car for an Artist and Gardener

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I finally bit the bullet and bought a new car to replace my 1996 Nissan Pathfinder with 200,010 miles on it. I called her my gardening car since I could pack so many plants in her. She also carried my Art to many, many Art Festivals over the years. By giving her up I felt almost the same sense of mourning as I did when I lost 4 trees in my woodland garden to Hurricane Sandy. This car had carried my Art and me safely throughout six states worth of Art Festivals

 

Nissan Pathfinder for an Artist's car

1996 Nissan Pathfinder pulling my trailer filled with Art to one of many Art Festivals

But it was time. The rust, the rattles, the pervading sense of being stranded somewhere if the trusty ‘ole car decided to bite the bullet. It was very hard to find the right replacement vehicle. I took tape measuring to all the dealerships in search of the perfect match. To my dismay I discovered that all the SUV’s have been pumped up on steroids since I was last in the market. Too many rows of seats and driving around in a McMansion didn’t hold appeal for me.

After much searching I finally choose a RAV4 by Toyota. It fit the dimensions of my large paintings but wasn’t too over sized for day to day driving. So I’ve downsized slightly in order to have a fully flat surface for transporting plants & Art. The back seat is a bench style while most of the larger ones have bucket style seats.

Oh, and I was able to get it in green. Not a color offered very frequently anymore. One of the things that was a big pleasant surprise since I hadn’t had a new car in decades, was all the new technology built into cars nowadays. The new toys helped with the sorrowful transition I felt on abandoning my old friend.

My RAV4 holding and entire Art Exhibition of 32 Paintings.

My RAV4 holding an entire Art Exhibition of 32 Paintings.

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Artist Mother – Mother Artist

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Artist Mother – Mother Artist
One and the same. Complements in name.
Work unending, always tending
To seek the insights needed to know,
to nourish – to form – to grow.

Taken for granted, demands expanded,
Desire for life on a higher standard.
Creative, depletive, rewarding, absorbing.
Continuous rebirth of the most generous kind.

Writing by Mary Ahern Feb. 20, 1978

Artist Mother - Mother ArtistSketch by Mary Ahern October, 27, 2013

 

 

 

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Joseph Raffael at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery – Video of the 2013 Show

I happily took the Long Island Railroad into Penn Station to then walk to Chelsea in NYC from my perch in Northport Long Island. This venture, on a cold winter day, was to gather in the brilliant colors and environments of the watercolor paintings created by the Artist, Joseph Raffael. These large-scale works envelop you into the tropical gardens and seaside shells which are the models and subjects of his work.

Some feature strongly defined focal points while other subjects are diffused, allowing you to meander through the tangles of flowers, leaves and stems. Koi provide the pivotal “Turning Point” between the water and air while leaving ripples which you know will be gone again in moments. Tibetan prayer flags flutter in the breeze sharing the brilliance of Koi colors. Time, movement and transience are significant subjects in these meditative paintings.

Here is a short video I made from this Joseph Raffael Show.

The Nancy Hoffman Gallery  520 West 27th St. New York City.

 March 21-May 4, 2013

 

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Living Color Art Exhibition – Sponsored by the Huntington Arts Council

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LIVING COLOR – ART EXHIBITION

featuring

“THE WORK OF FOUR EXTRAORDINARY ARTISTS EACH ONE FOCUSING ON THE UNIQUE AND VARIED WAYS THAT COLOR LIVES IN OUR LIVES”

– William Grabowski – Curator

Mary Ahern

Anne Gunthner

Stan Mehlman

Ray Rothaug

On View

March 26 – June 17, 2013
Art-trium Gallery. 25 Melville Park Rd, Melville NY 11747

OPENING RECEPTION

Friday, April 5, 2013. 5:30 – 7:00 pm
With music performance by Sally Shorrock and Friends

This Show is Sponsored by the Huntington Arts Council

SOME OF THE MIXED MEDIA PAINTINGS ON VIEW by the Artist, Mary Ahern

“Light Blue Iris in the Garden”
Light Blue Iris in the Garden - Mixed Media Painting - Mary AhernI grew these delightful light blue Iris germanica in my garden one year but they sadly haven’t come back with such beauty since. Iris borers and not enough sun perhaps. I solve this ephemeral behavior by painting the flowers from my garden. No pesticides, no fungicides, no weeding, no deadheading. They are in perfect condition all year round.
http://maryahernartist.com/galleries/mixed-media

“Lilies in the Garden”
Lilies in the Garden - Mixed Media Painting - Mary AhernAs a gardener and an Artist I’ve been able to combine both of these passions.Though my garden has been featured on various Garden Tours, I guarantee that it doesn’t look as good as the fantasy garden in this painting.

“Siberian Iris Trio”
Siberian Iris Trio - Mixed Media Painting - Mary AhernA small patch of these Siberian Irises were in the garden when I bought my home in 1989. They are short lived during the season but very long lived over the years.

“Daylilies and Rudbeckia”
I paired this combination of flowers on my canvas for the their jovial and robust colors. Noticing their form, color and bloom time I transplanted them to create a seasonal vignette in my late summer garden as well.

“Conversation Piece Azalea”
Conversation Piece Azalea - Mixed Media Painting - Mary AhernThese multi-colored flowers all bloom on the same shrub in my garden collection. Another nice thing about this cultivar is that it blooms a bit later than other Azaleas, thereby extended the colorful season.

MY ART BLOG

I wrote an article on my Art Blog recently describing how subconsciously I was influenced by the famous Matisse painting, “The Dance.”

Studying Art History for decades seeps into your creative mind and emerges in ways that you don’t expect. Though I majored in Art in college, it’s the years of continuing pursuit that really make the subtle and not so subtle differences in an Artist’s work.

You can read my article about the Matisse composition for “The Dance” here.

QUOTATION
A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.

– Gertrude Jekyll  – Gardener, Designer, Writer 1893-1932

MY ARTIST STATEMENT
My Art is driven by the pursuit of multiple passions. In my garden I grow the delicate & ephemeral models which are the subjects of my paintings.  I transform them through a complex series of digital technologies and traditional mediums.

I have a degree in horticulture, a degree in Fine Arts and my entire career has been spent in Digital Imaging technologies. These are the tools I use to create my Art.

Creating and reinventing my gardens larger than life size demonstrates the profound importance they play in my own personal centering.

I hope to see you at my show opening and if not please visit me on my website,
or on Facebook: http://facebook.com/MaryAhernArtist
…mary

Light Blue Iris in the Garden – Painting Inspiration

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My paintings actually start in my garden. This is where I grow the flowers, shrubs and trees, which are a part of the workflow of my creative output. The sun and shade play a role in all my compositions.

I actually consider the creative work to be seamless whether at work in the garden or at work in my studios. The up close and personal view of the flowers when I’m weeding, deadheading, trimming and tending allow me the time to become intimately aware of each flower’s details. This is something I like to convey in my work.

Mary Ahern Artist. Light Blue Iris Germanica

Light Blue Iris Germanica

These light blue irises came to dance in the breezes in the front garden, which I can see through the French doors in my living room. Though short lived, their ephemeral character is part of the fun of capturing them in my Art.

Mary Ahern Artist. Phlox stolonifera, 'Sherwood Purple' and Karume azalea in the woodland walks.

Phlox stolonifera, ‘Sherwood Purple’ in front of a Karume azalea in the woodland walks.

The composition of this painting was created using elements from different areas of my garden. The woodland walks with their large hemlock trunks for the vertical accents, which mimic the verticals of the irises. The rare spots of sunshine in the front garden, which hold the irises and many other perennial sun lovers, give me many sources of inspiration during the seasons.

Light Blue Iris in the Garden. Mixed Media Painting. 30x40" Gallery Wrapped. © Mary Ahern.

Light Blue Iris in the Garden. Mixed Media Painting. 30×40″ Gallery Wrapped. © Mary Ahern.

The finished painting is called “Light Blue Iris in the Garden”. I’m not very original on names but it is an apt description.

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Mary Ahern Invited To Exhibit Her Art by the Huntington Arts Council

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Daylilies and Rudbeckia by the Artist, Mary Ahern

Daylilies and Rudbeckia, a Mixed Media painting by the Artist, Mary Ahern.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mary Ahern Invited To Exhibit Her Art by the Huntington Arts Council

Northport, NY. – February 24, 2013

Mary Ahern, the Northport Garden Artist, has been invited by the Huntington Arts Council to display her Mixed Media paintings in the show titled, “Living Color”. These bold & bright, large-scale paintings are interpretations of the gardens she tends surrounding her studio on Long Island.

Mary Ahern, who has shown her work and been collected extensively on Long Island and many surrounding States, is pleased to have been invited by the Huntington Arts Council to participate in the “Living Color” show. Ahern states, “The title of this show perfectly describes my own large colorful floral portraits. It is a perfect fit.”

The Huntington Arts Council show will be held in the Art-trium in Melville, Long Island, NY. This spacious setting is ideal for Ahern’s large-scale powerful statements.

The show will be held at the Art-rium Gallery at 25 Melville Park Rd., Melville NY. Her Fine Art will be on view from March 26 – June 17, 2013.

Meet the Artist at the opening reception, which will be held on Friday, April 5, 2013 from 5:30-7pm.

Contact Information:

Mary Ahern

Phone: 631-757-9459

Email: mary@MaryAhernArtist.com

Follow the Artist & her work on her website & blogs at: http://MaryAhernArtist.com

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