Mary Warnick

With her trademark smile and lively eyes, Mary Warnick sits happily in her Strawbridge Art League studio, a person at peace with herself and others. Since kindergarten she'd admired kids, pictures of horizons with suns coming up, wishing she could do it. Her first art award was 3rd place during high school in the Westchester County Student Competition in NY. It was a pastel still life. Although art was her high school elective, she majored in home economics education during college at Penn State, and taught the subject for several years. She also worked for Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, retiring as a service manager in 1990. Not wasting any time, she headed straight to art lesions and discovered cheerful, light watercolors, which she feels epitomize Florida, and now teaches classes herself in the medium. Right now her "Happy Hippos" painting hangs in Melbourne Airport, part of the Africa, Africa, Africa traveling exhibit. Warnick also keeps scrap paper in her purse so she can sketch at a moment's notice.

"Once when I was sketching people at Denver Airport, a man sitting next to me said, 'Look, someone is sketching YOU!' So I looked over and it was true. People react in different ways to me. Some will start posing, or put a newspaper up to cover their face, some don't notice at all, others turn around. I like when I can sketch them undetected; it's natural then."

Mary is a fan of Marilyn Arbuckle, a former teacher of hers. She loves Jon Houghton's oil and watercolor portraits, Janet Rogers' "looseness", the way she "captures children" and does "gorgeous glowers". Mark Chagall inspires her with his imagination, and she like impressionists with their colors. Mary lives with her husband Joe in Indian Harbor Beach, where they moved from Massachusetts in 1993. They have 2 sons and a daughter and 5 grandchildren, ALL girls.

Mary's work can be seen in room 210B and the main floor of the Henegar Center, also in exhibits at the Evans Library at Florida Tech, the Agricultural Extension Center at Cocoa, the Justice Center in Viera, Titusville City Hall, as well as Ocean Walk Lounge at her condo. Her work has been accepted in juried shows such as Watercolors of Olde Brevard I and II (which resulted in 2 vivid historical books that capture the essence of Brevard County, and can be purchased at BWS or SAL), Vision 2002, Florida Florida Florida and Africa Africa Africa. In Mary's spare time she reads books, historical novels (she loves Michener and Irving Stone), does crossword puzzles and word games, is active in her Presbyterian Church, and socializes with friends. A truly spiritual person with genuine warmth, Mary believes art should reflect a person's innermost being. She sees art in nature's infinite beauty, a beauty that has seeped into Mary herself and emanates from her like a permanent rainbow.

Written by Siri Lynn German