About
Bio
Mary Blue is an American-born British painter whose work explores the meeting place of permanence and change. Working primarily in oil and gouache, she draws on sustained observation of Britain's timelines, estuaries, marshes and woodlands, using landscape as a language through which to investigate the unseen forces that shape both place and human experience.
An experienced educator and workshop leader, Mary believes that painting begins with paying attention. Whether working with students, exhibiting her paintings or sketching on the Norfolk coast, she is interested in how close observation deepens our understanding of resilience, belonging and the enduring elements of life.
Mary received her Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied with the American landscape painter Neil Welliver and within the legacy of Josef Albers. Her artistic development has also included study at the Maryland Institute College of Art, the Vermont Studio Center and the École des Arts d'Avignon, France. Influential visiting critics included Bill Jacklin, Harmony Hammond and Red Grooms.
She has exhibited throughout Norfolk, London and internationally, and has been shortlisted for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2023), as well as on several occasions for both the Sir John Hurt Art Prize and the Mannington Nature Prize.
Her paintings invite viewers into landscapes that are both observed and remembered—places where weather, water and time become a language for resilience, change and our relationship with the wider world.
Statement
I paint to understand the continual conversation between permanence and change.
I am drawn to landscapes where apparent opposites coexist: where freshwater meets saltwater, woodland gives way to marsh, and permanence is revealed through continual change.
My paintings begin with close observation: walking marshes, following tides, watching light move through woodland, and making studies in gouache and oil. From these encounters, the work becomes an exploration of what the natural world can teach us—how to live with uncertainty, how to navigate shifting ground, and how to remain faithful to what endures.
I am increasingly drawn to the wisdom of Britain's coastal landscapes: its estuaries, tidelines and woodlands, where freshwater and saltwater meet, where land is continually remade by the tide, and where change is not an interruption but a way of being. The coast becomes my way of exploring a landscape that is continually changing yet somehow endures. These places become a language through which I explore unseen forces—time, reciprocity, surrender, resilience, belonging and renewal.
My paintings invite the viewer to pause and consider not only the landscape before them, but the deeper currents that shape our own lives. I am less interested in depicting a place than in revealing what it has to teach us about navigating the world, and ourselves.
Solo Exhibitions
2026 Viewing Room, Kings Lynn, UK
2025 Melusina at Cromer Artspace on the Prom, UK
2024 Abbott & Holder, London, UK
2023 Open Studios, Norfolk, UK
2022 4 Coastguards Cottage, Weybourne, UK
2020 Studio with A View, Wells Next the Sea, UK
2019 Open Space, Wells Next the Sea, Norfolk, UK
2018 Open Space, Wells Next the Sea, Norfolk, UK
2017 Norfolk Open Studios, Kettlestone, Norfolk, UK
1998 Green Gallery, Havertown, USA
Group Exhibitions
2026
By Way of the Sea, Salthouse, UK
North North Exhibition Project, Wighton 26, UK
Gallery East, Trembling Waters, Woodbridge UK
2025
Eisenhauer Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard, USA
Summer Exhibition at the Old Chapel, Sculthorpe, UK
2024
Dark Skies & Wild Places, Residency , St Agnes Isles of Scilly, UK
Lay of the Land, Kings Lynn, UK
2023
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, UK
East to East, Houghton Hall, C&C Houghton, UK
Seeking the Inner Landscape, Gallery East, Woodbridge, UK
2022
Deep Water, GroundWork Gallery, Kings Lynn, UK
Avant Gardeners, Contemporary and Country, Houghton Hall, Norfolk UK
Thomas, Caswell and Blue, Walsingham Gallery, UK
2021
Rock, Paper, Scissors, Contemporary and Country, Houghton Hall, Norfolk UK
Vogue III, Boomer Gallery, London, UK
A Selection of East Anglian Artists, Walsingham Gallery, UK
John Hurt Art Prize Holt Festival, UK
Paint Out Norfolk, UK
2020
John Hurt Art Prize Holt Festival, UK
Paint Out Norfolk, UK
2019
Paint Out, Wells, Norfolk UK
2018
Paint Out, The Hostry, Norfolk UK
Inheritance Norwich Castle Museum, Norfolk UK
Paint Out, Wells, Norfolk UK
Older
Norfolk by Design (now Contemporary and Country), Houghton Hall, Norfolk UK
Birdie Fortescue, Burnham Market, Norfolk UK
Norfolk Open Studios, Kettlestone, Norfolk UK
Norfolk-by-Design (now Contemporary and Country), Field Dalling, Norfolk
McClelland Gallery, Philadelphia, USA
Philadelphia Printmaking Studio, Philadelphia, USA
Liner Gallery, New York, USA
Print Roulette, Philadelphia Printmaking, Philadelphia, USA
MFA Show, International Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, USA
Education
Small Business Studies
University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton
School, USA. 1995
M.A. Fine Art
University of Pennsylvania, USA. 1989
Art Scholarship
Vermont Studio School, USA. 1987
B.A. Art History & Psychology
Goucher University, USA. 1985
Printmaking
Maryland Art Institute, USA. 1985
Art History
American Institute, Avignon, France. 1983
Accomplishments
2016 Museum Collection ShareEast
2017 Vounteer Engagement ShareEast
2017, 2018 Norfolk Open Studios
2017-2022 Paint Out Competition
2019 Inheritance Exhibition Norwich Castle
2019 Connections Exhibition Wells Maltings
2020 BBC Get Creative Festival
2021 Art and the Visual Image Online Videos
2020, 2021, 2022 John Hurt Art Prize
2020- North Norfolk Exhibition Board
2021- Holt Festival Board
2021- Houghton Hall Stables, C & C
2021- Boomer Gallery London
2022- Houghton Hall Stables, C & C
2022- Walsingham Barns Gallery
2022- Solo Exhibition, The Ethics of Water
References
Amanda Geitner
amanda.geitner@eastangliaartfund.org.uk
Lady Anwen Hurt