About the artist:
Mary Dorsey Brewster has been painting alongside her architectural career for over 20 years, She was the founding partner of Brewster Thornton Group Architects and retired in 2022 to paint and travel full time. And to go on more walks and pilgrimages!
Educational Background:
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Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Bachelor of Architecture, 1983 (Professional Degree) Bachelor of Fine Arts, Architecture, 1983, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design, 1979
Memberships & Service:
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Providence Art Club – Exhibiting Artist
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RI Architectural Licensing Board
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Rotary Club Board Member
Exhibits
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Solo show: Light of the Azores at the Narrows Center for the Arts in July 2023
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Providence Art Club shows in 2010, 2013, 2016, 2021, and 2024
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Pieces in Fakes and Forgeries Spring Bull Gallery Newport, RI, Little Compton Summer Art Show, and Providence Art Club Little Pictures
Awards
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Bradford F. Swan Prize for Oils Providence Art Club 2018 for “Zion Guardian”
Artist statement:
Painting allows me to be a participant and a creator in the visual landscape. The act of observation lets me move from the specific to the transcendent. I want to show the glory, importance, and transience of what is present now. I am constantly inspired by my comrades in arms at the Providence Art Club, by the RI landscape, and by the traveling I have done.
For me, the plastic nature of oil paints helps me sculpt these scenes into being, by carving out light and dark, positive and negative spaces. The lights and darks illuminate patterns that tie the scene together. The image is arrived at by arranging and balancing, stating, removing, and restating. Each painting is a new experiment to see what I can discover inside the edges of my work.
My paintings are done with oil paints on primed panels or linen mounted on boards. The layering and texturing of paint mirrors the process of human life, and the structure created by values appeals to the deliberate creator in me.