About

Born Alice Mary Fitzpayne 23rd March 1928 in Catterick, Yorkshire and brought up in Leeds, Mary trained as an artist at Leeds College of Art, Central School of Art and Design and eventually the Royal College of Art. 

Despite the long and intensive training in the techniques she remained faithful to her own artistic ideas.  It is absolutely characteristic of her adherence to an original vision that she did not consider she had managed to paint what she really wanted to until the age of forty years.  Then, following a visit to the circus with her daughter, everything clicked into place and the style – her style, suddenly came into being. 

Mary usually works to to a specific canvas size 28″ x 36″ which she determined early in her career as a painter as being her size – the one best suited to her ideas and technique.  She regrets the fact that this careful choice of size is something of a lost art among many modern artists who simply enlarge their work to the largest size possible in the mistaken belief that size alone counts.

Her painting technique is one of glazing, scumbling and masses of time to reflect on the work in progress.  In some instances up to two years had passed before Mary was satisfied that the painting was exactly the vision that had inspired it in the first place.  The glazing technique perfected by such artists such as Van Eyck, Rubens and Titian consists of painting thin layers of darker colour over a light ground, usually gesso.  The effect of the technique is to give a luminous depth to the pigment and a gem-like quality to the most ordinary colour. The number of layers of over-painting in Mary’s work can be high as ten or more, depending on the desired effect.

All images owned and copyrighted to the artist Mary Fitzpayne

No image may be used or reproduced without permission

All enquiries via kathedeutsch@aol.com