My work evolves from the traditional etching process. I also enjoy the expressive possibilities of carborundum, monoprint, mixed media and painting in oils. Using landscape or seascape as an external structure, I work in layers, starting at an instinctive level and progressing through many experimental stages until the work evolves into painterly images of intense mood and atmosphere.

I grew up in the Tamar Valley on the border between Devon and Cornwall. I spent much of my childhood on the moor and by the sea. Now, I return to the places of my youth again and again. Most of the work originates in my responses to Dartmoor and the North Cornwall coastline. Other pieces are the result of my visits to British Columbia.

My first, and lasting, influences are the etchings of Rembrandt and Goya and I am told that some of my early etchings bring the visionary work of Samuel Palmer to mind. I love the paintings of Freidrich, Turner and Rothko. This year, my printmaking and painting are shifting into a different phase - one that is still reflecting my pre-occupation with the romantic notion of the Sublime, whilst at the same time attempting to release emotion into a "lighter" space.

 'It is incredible to think that this delicate, detailed, time-consuming work can look so free and passionate in the final images.'

 '[She] has always been absorbed by Dartmoor as a place to set the imagination working. She feels the tactile quality of its rocky surface,its textures, its bleak ruggedness, its sadness, and the echoes of an ancient history.' (Jenny Pery, "The Visionary Gleam", Transactions 2000)

 'Mary's prints [are imbued] with the very texture of the landscape… The changing moods of Dartmoor and the Cornish coast are [captured] as if the whole spirit of the place is etched by the weather itself.'

 '…she has continually built on traditional techniques, then stretched and subverted them, seeking to find more personal, experimental and painterly approaches to making the image.'