Mary Roberson

“Some artists look for composition or light, but what inspires me is a kind of love of nature, more so than any artistic element. I just had to find a way to express how I felt about wildlife and the environment. I’m blessed in that I can express that through painting.”

— Mary Roberson

For Mary Roberson, wildlife is a symbol of the workings of the universe. Her thick brushstrokes evoke the dense underbrush where many of her western wildlife subjects make their homes. Recently she has been traveling to Africa and painting the incredible wildlife she sees there.

Roberson lives in Hailey, Idaho, where she takes advantage of nearby Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks for inspiration. She has said that she feels that wildlife chooses her as subject matter, rather than the other way around. For Roberson, composition is the driving force and she uses a muted palette in order to highlight the composition. She builds her paintings through layers of paint, with representational images of animals against earth-tone backgrounds. The understated effect hints at meaning seen and unseen.