I've limited it to tones of teal, burgundy, orange, blue, and green.  It's been challenging, but exciting all at the same time. 

Solomon McCown is based in Boston, MA, but has an office in New York City. Their specialties are working with Corporate, Healthcare, Real Estate, Education, and Non-Profit groups to:

"define who they are, earn the recognition they deserve, and protect their reputations."

During that time, I didn't have a physical studio. At first, I made most of my art on the bus. Eventually, I switched  I noticed was texture was a very useful tool for designing gardens and picking fabric for a room.

Everyone who's ever gardened knows that after the blooms are gone, texture becomes the star. The best gardens include different sizes and shapes of leaves to create different sections of texture. A large patch of grass next to a patch of daisies creates contrast that gives a late season garden something subtle to ponder.

Looking at my reference photos, I realized many were devoted to leaf texture. I especially like them when they're dried. There's something about that process that creates even more variation in texture.

​There's a direct connection between what I see in nature and what comes out the end of my brush. Of course color aways brings something to the party, but notice how easy it is to see the texture and pattern when we look at these photos in black in white.

Exploring what happens when I combine two patterns together is a recent challenge. Transparency makes it possible for me to really push things and create new textures.

From the car or an airplane, it can appear so....brown...dry...dusty. On foot, its true complexity reveals itself.

Jeff and I just returned from our annual vacation. Normally, we go to Mexico and relish all it has to offer. This year we decided to shake things up and visit Tucson, AZ. One of our favorite things to do is walk. Or second vacation pleasure is taking tons, and tons of photos of anything that strikes our fancy. We like to call these "hiking tours", photo safaris. Over the years, I've noticed some ongoing themes are architecture and nature. Sure there'll be the occasional food, person, or dog photos, but most of the pics tend to be plants and architecture. We also tend to look and re-look at our images throughout the year.  These reference photos seem warm us during the cold Winter months.  

This post is the first of a few that I'll be doing about color, texture, form and pattern. It's my chance to show you some of the "reference" photos from our trips and see how they inspire my work. 

Enjoy!

This dusty blue, combined with the red fence tops, yellow Palo Verde blossoms, and orange adobe wall  just sang to me.

I love how the green of this cactus is silver or gray in parts and then vivid yellow in others. Don't over look that amazing blossom. I love how the light shines through its opaque petals.  Wow!!!

This is possibly one of my favorite color combos. I love how the teal trim balances or soothe the acid yellow adobe. Delicious!

Sometimes people think that because a painting has a minimal composition, that is was easy and quick to create. The reality is that the more  simple the composition, the longer it takes. Determining the thickness or a line or the shade of a color can take hours. It always amazes me how just shaving off a 1/2 inch can make all the difference between a successful piece and one that's just "meh".

The photos below show some of the decision making process for creating my new piece "The Season Had Changed". You can see how the pieces extended passed the cradled panel and had to be trimmed. How It took me a while to settle on the exact color of the purple rectangle and eventually ended up layering a piece of magenta woodgrain overtop to give it more depth.

There can be a lot of back and forth. For instance, should I have a blue vertical line or a yellow or maybe both. Notice the black swatches. Do you see how I must have adjusted them a million times before I settled on the final marks. Looking back at the first image, I liked the organic form on the bottom better, but by that time I'd stolen bits to add the black ball above the blue pour, and above the red and white rectangle.

It's amazing how long all this subtle tweaking can take. I keep hoping I'll get faster, but...I'm so seduced by the search for the perfect arrangement. Going through the motions is necessary to making sure I haven't left any idea unexplored.

​

One of my paintings was recently featured on Melanie By Design's blog.  This fantastic bathroom reno was designed by local designer Melanie Olson. Go to this link to see the before and after shots. This classic and funky space is one that anyone would love to have in their home.  

Thank you Melanie Olson for the feature!

Waiting for Snow, 30"x30", acrylic, Dura-Lar on paper, 2016 copyright Mary Zeran, available

Trying to get all the stuff that inspires me down into a 200 word paragraph has always been difficult. There's something about the word limit that paralyzes me. Plus, there's the fact that in my head, the words need to be swanky, or sound intelligent. All this fussing and parameters do nothing for my confidence. 

These two pieces and the below "narrative" are the first time I've talked about how science influences my work. I'll be writing more about this in the future, but until now....

"Mary Zeran’s (born 1964) paintings are like an imagined microscopic world.  By mixing different viscosities of paint onto polyester film, she exploits surface tension to produce organic shapes that mirror cells during division. Multiple sheets laminated together form passages of obsessively layered, intensely colored patterns only found in her imagination.​"

It Was Exhilarating, 30"x30", acrylic, Dura-Lar on paper, 2016 copyright Mary Zeran, available

You should have seen the "fights" or discussions I'd have with my mom. I just couldn't understand why it wasn't okay to mix lots of different patterns together.

Years later, I had the chance to take a skill  that was "automatic or easy" for me and use it to make money. For 8 years, I sold fabric to interior designers. My favorite part of the job was when they would request a group of fabrics for a room. They'd give me the color palette, style of the job, and whether they wanted prints, plaids, or stripes. I loved that part of my job. It was so much fun to see how creative I could get within the job's confines.

The past few weeks, I've been indulging myself in love of pattern....Really pushing it and seeing where it takes me. Playing with pattern makes me feel like a kid again. Somewhat naughty, but incredibly creative. What I've learned is, it's all about the balance between small, medium, and large sized patterns.

Listening Shift, 24"x36"x2", acrylic, Dura-Lar on cradled panel, 2016 copyright Mary Zeran, available

Fall Away, 30"x 30"x2", acrylic, Dura-Lar on cradled panel, 2017 copyright Mary Zeran, available

Late Bloomer, perseverance, and resilience. I've always valued being an artist because it's taught me there isn't any problem we can't solve if we just use some creativity.

In her most recent interview for Vasari21's, Ann Landi sensed the same thing about me and my path as an artist. I have to say that being interviewed by her was one of the most pleasant experiences. Ann did it old school, by calling me on the phone and asking questions. This way of working allowed me to just tell my story without overthinking, editing, and micro managing the outcome. 

Thank you Ann for featuring me and my work on Vasari21. I couldn't be more happy!

For those of you who want to read the article, you can either scroll down, but I think the better quality experience would be to go to Vasari21 here.

About: 
Ann Landi has been writing about art and artists for more than 20 years, mostly for ARTnews and the Wall Street Journal. She's the author of the four-volume Schirmer Encyclopedia of Art (Gale Broup, 2001) and earned degrees in art history from Princeton and Columbia. A long-time New Yorker, she relocated to Taos, NM, in 2011.

 My art was seen in a 2017 Super Bowl commercial! Actually, the point of the commercial was to advertise United Fire Group. The above photo shows employees and UFG's beautiful facilities.  My piece just happened to be on the wall. I'm thinking of it as my art photo bombed the shoot.

Here's to random delightful  things.  Thanks to my collector, United Fire Group for  this amazing bit of exposure. Extra thanks to Suzy McGrane Hop of Gilded Pear Gallery for introducing my art to them!

To see the whole commercial, to to this link.

The reasons can be many. Making big work needs the right collector, takes up my whole studio, can be difficult to store if it doesn't sell. 

Working on the commission for Suzy and Chris DeWolf's Chicago Gold Coast condo was an absolute blast! It was the biggest painting I have ever created. The size gave me a chance to spread out, and tackle something a bit scary.  Thankfully, Suzy and Chris were the perfect collectors. They were fantastic at communicating at what they liked and didn't like, but best of all they were decisive. That made the process go smoothly. Thank you Suzy and Chris for a wonderful experience.

Below are some process photos. In the second photo you'll see how the piece dwarfed my workshop and took up a whole wall of my studio. One of the questions I got when I was working on this was, "How did I lift it?" The secret is the piece is 3 separate panels measuring 48"x36"x2". Working in the modular format makes it easier to move around my studio, transport, store, and install.
​

In addition to provided funding for performance art, they also purchase local artists work for the walls of their corporate offices.  The art featured in this blogpost are part of their most recent purchase for their Los Angeles branch.

Thank you so very, very much to Suzy and Lauren at Gilded Pear Gallery and Debbie of UFG for including my work in the permanent collection.

My husband Jeff Schipper and I were delighted to have our home featured in The Gazette. Reporter Katie Giorgio is such a wonderful interviewer. Her writing style is so personable and easy to read! Gazette staff photographer Rebecca F. Miller took some amazing photos. Jeff remarked he saw our home with new eyes and loved it even more.

Something I found interesting is the online article contains MORE photos than the hardcopy.  To read the online article and see photos go to this link here.

As always, special thanks to Katie Mills Giorgio, Rebecca F. Miller and the staff at The Gazette making this possible.

When I heard the LeCompte's were building a new house, I was thrill they were giong include my piece "She Had the Fight Inside" as part of the project. I feel so honored to have my painting hanging in a place of honor over their mantle. 

Now availalbe at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art in Kansas City, MO. To purchase, contact Sherry or Allison.
 
Sherry Leedy
Director
sherryleedy@sherryleedy.com
​                             
Allison King
Gallery Assistant
allisonking@sherryleedy.com
                           
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art
2004 Baltimore Avenue
Kansas City, Missouri 64108

phone: 816-221-2626
fax: 816-221-8689 Hours:11am – 5 pm Tuesday – Saturday
and by appointment. 

www.sherryleedy.com

In addition to solo show preparation, I felt extremely lucky to have my work featured in Ann Landi's newsletter for Vasari 21.  Landi is a well seasoned journalist whose been writing about art and artists for more than 20 years. You can find her exaples of her writing in ARTnews and the Wall Street Journal. Ann is the author of the four-volume Schirmer Encyclopedia of Art (Gale Broup, 2001). She earned degrees in art history from Princeton and Columbia. After years living in New York, she relocated to Taos, NM, in 2011.

For those of you looking to indulge yourself in all these art, you can go to her website here. You can subscribe to her newsletter here...for as low as $20.00 or more if you're feeling generous.

Thank you again Ann for the feature, and all you do for artists and the arts. Good writing about the arts seems to be an endangered species. So glad you're out there doing what you do best!

The rest of the newsletter is available below.

2016 was a busy year for the studio, ending it with the solo show was the best celebration I could have hoped for. As you can see by the photos, the opening for KACHOW!!! was a huge success. I felt honored to be surrounded by collectors new and old.  

Thank you to Suzy McGrane-Hop and Lauren Tucci of Gilded Pear Gallery for making this show such an amazing experience.