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Mary Cornish

Mary has been painting professionally for over 30 years. Smitten after her first encounter with a California condor at the San Diego Wild Animal Park in the early 2000’s, Mary just had to paint this incredible bird. “My paintings have been described as photographic and to some extent, they are. But I paint for myself, to satisfy something within me that is otherwise unreachable. Perhaps a vulnerability or connection that goes beyond the image on the canvas. Viewers have told me that as they are looking at my condor paintings, it has moved them through an array of emotions not even visually connected with the image. But this connection links us together and creates an experience for both of us. This is the best part of painting. I can’t think of a better way of reaching people about these beautiful creatures than partnering with Ventana Wildlife Society”

She was raised in the Puget Sound area of Washington state and received her early art training from William Tartaglia and Grace Wagner. She received the National Scholastic Gold Key Art Award in Painting during her Senior year in High School, cumulating with a group exhibit at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Washington. She retuned to her education many years later and attended Northwest College of Art earning a degree in Visual Communications and Graphic Design. She started a successful career creating business and corporate identities. A few years later, she left that world for her real love; painting.

Mary’s paintings have been included in National and International exhibitions. She has won numerous awards for her artwork. Her paintings have appeared in exhibitions across the United States such as Women Artists of the West, Oil Painters of America, Worldwide Art Renewal Center’s Salon, Woodson Art Museum’s famed “Birds in Art”, and the Butler Institute of American Art.

​Mary can be found working in her studio, near the Blue Ridge Mountains in Warrenton, Virginia, where she resides with her husband, Mark Hicks; a master artisan in wood. Visit Mary's website at www.marycornish.com/ to see more of her work.

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