Mary Jane Q. Cross
New Hampshire
www.q-cross.com www.maryjaneqcross.com
Born 1951. Youngest in a family of three children, raised
in
Rockville,
Hartford,
and
Manchester
Connecticut. “ I knew I wanted to have beautiful things,
and to have them I would probably have
to make them, I didn't know this was being an artist, until I was about eight.
The strongest gift I think I have been given is a desire to paint rather than a
natural talent.”
“Time goes away when I paint, it makes me think we were
born for eternity, that what I do well has a timelessness about it that I can
do forever” it makes me more certain that I was born to do this”
“ The only person I
have to be better than is myself,”
“I would rather see
something the wrong color than the wrong value.”
“I will pursue beauty
all my days”
“Respecting beauty,
truth, craftsmanship, wins over…. shock, ingenuity, novelty.”
Attending the
Worcester
Art Museum school in 1970
I received a contemporary Education. Recognizing myself as a closet realist made me pursue my clandestine
life with the Pre-Raphaelites, Gerome’, Metcalf, and Dumond. The naïveté of what I expected to receive for
my arts Education, set me on a course of pursuing a salon or atelier
Education. I would choose an artist’s
whose work that evoked admiration and
respect, then would study them in-depth and take away what ever needed for my
own work. John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Camille Pissarro, Lord Leighton,
Lawrence Alma Tadema, were all visited along the way. The little-known
Bouguereau has been the one with the most staying power in my studies. That he
was not in our history books was a disappointment. That he pleased the public
so well was a joy.
To learn drawing all over again I taught seven classical
studies classes at a local
Art
Center. It was a period of time of gaining stronger
academic skills. This was also the beginning of my public portrait painting
career. In one year 105 portraits were
done.
In 1983 I took a one-week workshop with Daniel Green in
New York. It was a catalyst for my strong interest in
portraiture and began to lay the foundation for treating flesh in a colorist
manner. I was painting portraits in preparation for what I thought was a mural
painting career. Multifigured, salon
type of subjects, with strong composition was a focus for quite a long
time. Many Biblical murals were produced
during this time, resulting in a one-woman show in 1991 at The Biblical Art
Center Museum in
Dallas
Texas. Many of these paintings are in my hometown at one of the larger local
churches. They have also been published
in the “Upper Room Magazine”, as illustrations and covers.
Continued study included many years with a 97 year old
artist, Frances Weston Hoyt,(died May 2005) a student and Friend of Frank
Vincent DuMond, an early 1900’s landscape American Impressionist painter and
much loved Art Students League teacher for 59 years. The pallet that best
enabled Fran to evoke the progression of hills and atmosphere and light affect,
is the one that DuMond handed down to several of his students. It is not
uncommon to meet fellow artists at shows or exhibitions that recognize
each other from this identifiable treatment of the landscape and palette, who
have studied with other Dumond students. At the present time the elements that
are coming together to be able to produce the genre portraits that are
currently being painted at Q. Cross Atelier, are Strong classical drawing,
colorist flesh, and atmospheric light affects on the landscape and the figure
in the landscape. Most importantly though is the element of being on my knees
in prayer, to serve God who has made me, in this business of painting.
It must be mentioned that in 1992 I lost the ability to hold
a brush due to a severe right-sided tremor that developed after 19 days on one
of the most popular medications of all-time. For the next 5 1/2 years I began to live with a different aspect of my life. It took all of that time to cope and relearn
how to make the tremoring hand do the work I do today. As a result the work is
predominantly finger painting. 95% of
the painting is generally done with my fingers, another two to 5% is with a brush
using prosthetic devices.
Together with 21 years of mural restoration, conservation and restoration of
paintings, a deep love for classical realism, and a large body of well known,
figurative Biblical work, are some of the areas that have helped form the
painter I am continuing to become.
Married to Mark Cross, childhood friend, ardent supporter
and best critic. “It's an absolute
delight that I do what I love to do, but it is a joy that my husband loves what
I do as well”
My work is signed with a thumbprint made into a Q.
Mary Jane Q. Cross
www.q-cross.com
www.maryjaneqcross.com
qcross@earthlink.net
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