website: plandingfineart.com
email: mplanding@gmail.com
​phone: 831.435.9786
Mary began her “auspicious” painting career at the age of 3… helping her fine artist dad and teacher gesso his canvases. She studied in NYC at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art taking weekend drawing, illustration, and painting classes throughout her early years. She lived  in France and Austria while in college majoring in language and communications. Returning to the US, Mary entered the business world, working for Apple Computer in marketing and branding.
 
She rediscovered her love of creating art after a successful 35-year career in high tech. “I had always loved pastels, but they were so primitive when I was young, so I worked mainly in watercolor. What a surprise and delight it was to find the variety of pastel brands and surfaces back in the early ’00s. I fell in love again and began studying with well-known pastellists.”
 
Mary continues to evolve her style and hone her skills, “There’s always something new to learn, try, explore, experiment, and share. New techniques, new materials, new ways of perceiving what I see, trying new ways to project on canvas what I feel so others feel it too.” As a colorist and impressionist-style painter, she focuses on helping the viewer experience what is happening in that painting with all the viewer’s senses. Most of her collectors say her paintings help them return to a special memory that they experience again and again.
 
Mary has served on the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz’s board of directors, and was a member of the Santa Cruz Art League and the Pastel Society of the West Coast. Today, she serves on the Artisans/SUFA Steering Committee and is a member of the Pastel Society of North Carolina, and the Coastal Carolina Pastel Painters. 

Read Mary's complete Artist's statement here.