Spotlight on Mary Ann Moore
Artist statement:
As a child, Mary Ann Moore loved art classes, but other than that she has had very little formal training. Nevertheless, with encouragement from some Tehachapi artist friends, she’s recently joined CrossRoads Gallery as a regular member and will be one of the gallery’s featured artists in August.
The youngest of five in “a very small town” in eastern Pennsylvania, Mary Ann first discovered her interest in art when she attended “Saint John’s four-room schoolhouse.” She loved her art classes – she still has her copy of “My Sketchbook - Grade 6,” an instructional art book used by the schools and written by the Diocese of Harrisburg – and she fondly recalls an art contest in sixth grade when she chose to do a portrait of her teacher, Sister Mary Lawrence.
“She was very tall, and her black habit and robe made her look taller since I was a shrimp,” Mary Ann says. “I drew her face on a big piece of paper and probably went through 50 pencils because there was a lot of shading to do.” She won first place in the contest “because everyone recognized that it was my teacher.”
Mary Ann’s family moved to California in 1969, and she continued to take art classes when she could in both junior and senior high schools. She never got to go to college, but she continued teaching herself by spending most weekends at a friend’s house, drawing. Even then, she says, “I was crazy about horses and that’s mostly what I drew. I did some portraits also, faces I liked from magazines.”
After a 30-year interval of not doing much with her art, Mary Ann and husband Jim moved to Tehachapi and retired a few years ago. Playing senior softball in Bear Valley Springs, Mary Ann met Dorine Lunceford, “and she invited me to come draw with her group at the Whiting Center. Thanks to her I got back to drawing, which I love to do.” Dorine also introduced her to water color painting.
Still crazy about horses, Mary Ann says, “I’m also learning to oil paint – horses of course. I got my first horse nine years ago and now we have three in the front yard. I’m forever taking pictures of them for reference, and my goats and dogs and all the animals in the area.”
Mary Ann continues to challenge herself and learn – “There are so many wonderful art books out on drawing and painting horses, and I think I have all of them!” she says – and has taken the giant step of putting her work out for the public to see. In August she will be a featured artist at CrossRoads Gallery along with friend and mentor Dorine Lunceford, and fellow Bear Valley Springs artists Tina Dilley and Nancy Waldron.
