Description
Somerville Manning Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of paintings by Mary Page Evans, on view from November 17 through December 16, 2023. Mary Page Evans is influenced by – and was good friends with – several abstract expressionist and minimalist painters of the 1950’s and 1960’s, like Grace Hartigan and Joan Mitchell. She is also greatly influenced by the French impressionists and post-impressionists, naming Cézanne as a particular inspiration and was given permission to paint at Giverny, Claude Monet’s garden. Evans uses expressive color and line to evoke the ephemeral quality of movement and light found in the natural world. She works directly from nature seeking to capture the essence of the places she paints, returning again and again, chronicling them in different moods and seasons.Seas, Skies and Still-Lifes will include a mix of new work and some past museum pieces. The paintings depict themes – seascapes, skyscapes, florals – that Evans has painted variations of during her entire career, and in some of her still life pieces, all three are present. Evans is particularly moved by our changing landscape and has chosen to include a landscape of a location that, once beautiful, has now succumbed to overdevelopment. Her love of gardens is apparent in her colorful still-lifes, and her seascapes depict the lush, natural landscapes of Delaware and Florida beaches and the perpetual motion of waves and clouds.Evans has been honored with solo exhibitions in major galleries in Washington D.C., Florida, and Pennsylvania. Evan’s work was the focus of a retrospective show at the Delaware Art Museum in 2012. Her paintings and drawings are in public, private, and corporate collections, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Delaware Art Museum, Brandywine River Museum of Art, the State Museum of Pennsylvania, and the White House. She studied at the Art Students League in New York and the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. She has lived in Delaware for 50 years with her husband, former Delaware Congressman Tom Evans.