In the world of the chicken or egg question, is it an artful life or a life lived with art? That question can be pondered from a variety of different angles when it comes to the creative and prolific journey Mary Nolan has experienced. Nolan, who resides near Cooperstown, New York, is originally a Boston resident with close ties to the Cape, particularly the Dennis Village area where her sister lives. Nolan’s atmospheric landscapes are dramatic and sweeping with quiet moments that are identified within her pieces to hold a captivating gaze. “I’m always drawn to big, open skies; with dramatic clouds if there are any. But quiet places despite the grandeur of what’s going on in the sky,” she explains. “When I was living on the Cape during graduate school, I was very taken with Anne Packard’s work. The way she would put so much into her skies and water, below just a slice of a horizon, and then a tiny little boat; I loved that, I loved her sense of scale. Her paintings would just stop me in my tracks.”

Nolan, who says she can’t remember when she wasn’t an artist, attended the Vesper George School of Art in Boston’s Back Bay. At the time she wasn’t a painter per se, “At the time I did so many things,” she recalls of her art studies at the time. “I experimented with so many things, clay, stained glass, I even weaved baskets. I was always taking classes in everything and anything I could.” Today, Nolan is the teacher as she teaches at the Cooperstown Art Association where she is also an active member with frequent exhibits and shows. Her work is featured year-round throughout the northeast and the highly-productive artist says she has been selling her work regularly since she was in high school. “There are often pieces in local museums and shows near me in New York year-round, and then seasonally the various galleries that represent my work usually get the bigger coastal pieces,” she shares.

Nolan takes her computer tablet with her everywhere so she can snap photos and use them for inspiration later in the studio. “It’s not like I follow them exactly, they are more of a starting off point and I love to see where it goes,” she explains. Nolan says most of her work has been oil on canvas, yet recently she finds herself painting on panels, partially due to the output of smaller works that are received enthusiastically by buyers and collectors and the brevity of completing the pieces. Underpainting isn’t a hard and fast rule, in fact there are few rules for this painter who despite decades of creating finds herself continually experimenting. “Sometimes I underpaint, sometimes I don’t. It kind of goes with that idea of experimenting. I used to teach a lot of plein air and then after COVID when everything came to a screeching halt, it became a time to experiment, and I still find myself doing that. Lately, I have been using a palette knife more and find my paintings are getting a bit more abstract. It is always evolving, at least that’s the goal in order to keeps things exciting.”

Giving thought to what comes next, she says, “I’m not really sure what direction I want to go in. I keep thinking I want to head more toward abstraction, yet that doesn’t seem to be happening. A couple of pieces have come out really well, and they sell right away. You sort of have a plan and it starts working and then it takes on a life of its own.” So back to the chicken or the egg question: for Mary Nolan, is it an artful life or a life filled with art? And as long as she keeps creating, does it really matter? 

Mary Nolan’s work can be found at Harvest Gallery in Dennis Village, harvestgallery.co, and at Elburne in Dennis, elburne.com. See more from the artist at marynolan.com.