Mary Beth came to botanical painting after careers in education and income tax preparation.
Her botanical studies began at Old Westbury Gardens with instruction from Rose Pellicano. it was there she began her association with other like-minded artists, and FLORA came into being.
She is a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists, the New York Horticultural Society, and the New York Botanical Garden, and has continued her studies through workshops given by these organizations.
“In acquiring knowledge, we but push back the horizon of our ignorance.” Mary Beth’s interest in botanical painting has led her to pursue independent studies of botany and ornithology, as well as scientific history of pigments and dyes. More recently, she has been exploring the painting of botanical subjects in colored pencil and watercolor pencil in additional to traditional watercolor.
One of her favorite poems is “Inversnaid” by Gerard Manley Hopkins. It included these lines:
What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.