Biography
Maryann McGraw has developed a unique relationship with nature and art. Growing up in Chicago, Maryann cultivated a deep appreciation of nature spending summer vacations in the lake country of Wisconsin and Minnesota, a stark contrast from her daily life in the heart of the inner city. She attended art classes at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Maryann has spent her entire adult life living in the West and in Placitas, NM since 1993. Spending many summers as a field geologist, her love of nature grew and expanded to interests in plants, soils, water resources and wildlife habitat. Her concern is for the continual exploitation of our natural resources in a non-sustainable manner, and her career path turned a corner towards environmental protection.
Her connection to nature has grown beyond the study of its physical characteristics and the understanding of physical and biological processes, to a more emotional and intimate relationship through art. In 2001, Maryann began to paint en plein air in pastel, concentrating on scenic vistas and how time and seasonal changes affect those places. She also paints intimate vignettes of streams, washes, rock formations, and grasslands. Maryann has a treasured connection to the sea and paints the Pacific Coast of California and in Hawaii annually. Her painting passion also includes cloudscapes, nocturnes and twilight. Her goal is to convey color to the viewer beyond what is captured by a mere glance, but rather looking deeply and thoughtfully into the view.
Maryann's pastel paintings have been on the cover of the Quivira Coalition Conference Proceedings for four years and her plein air painting of the Gila Wilderness was the 2009 Conference cover in honor of 100th Anniversary of Aldo Leopold’s birth. In 2005, she won an award for her painting “Just for Love” from the Santa Fe Botanical Gardens. In 2011 she won 2nd place Quick Draw and an exhibition award at the PAPNM Socorro Paint Out, 1st place quick draw at PAPNM Paintout in Ruidoso, NM, and in 2013 she won Honorable Mention at the PAPNM Annual Juried Exhibition at the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, NM. In 2014, Maryann won the Award of Excellence at PAPNM Santa Fe Paint Out for her painting “Virga and Vellum.” In 2015, Maryann won 2nd Place Enchanted Skies award at PAPNM Santa Fe Plein Air Fiesta; 2019 she won the Award of Excellence for Dry Media in the PAPNM Annual Juried National Show; 2020 Enchanted Skies Award PAPNM Fiesta. Her pastel landscape paintings of the Jemez Mountains were displayed at Jemez Pueblo Visitor’s Center Museum. She was featured in one-person shows at Purple Sage Gallery in Old Town Albuquerque, where she is represented in 2017-2018. She was 2007 Treasurer and Program Chair of the Pastel Society of New Mexico (PSNM) for five years, and she is presently Signature Member of Plein Air Painters of New Mexico, PSNM, and Chicago Pastel Painters, and is Assoc. Member of PAAC, Pastel Society of Colorado and AIS.
