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Mary Ann Carroll (1940-2019)
Blue River
Oil on Upson Board circa mid to late 1960s
Image size 24" X 36"
Mary Ann Carroll needed little motivation to paint. Her love of God and her love of family inspired her to paint. She said the painting was a blessing because she could paint at night and sell during the day, enabling her to raise seven children as a single mother. She could paint two paintings a night and sell them for anywhere from $15 to $35 each, good money in the late 50s into the early 70s. Unlike the other artists, you would not find her having a beer or smoking a cigarette with the others, but they admired her and she fit in. Sometimes, her children would help her build frames or prepare Upson Board for paint; occasionally, they'd ride with her while she went on the road to sell her works. It wasn't always easy, "It was segregation. Blacks had one water fountain; whites had another. At restaurants, you had to go in the back door. Blacks were disrespected," On being the only female in the group, she said, "Life is not about being a male or a female; it's about surviving."
Mary Ann Carroll's works feature her strong and intense use of colors, applied with attention to detail. Suppose you study this painting and her sunset painting of the St Lucie River in the exhibit. In that case, you might easily imagine they depict the same bend in the river, just done under different lighting conditions and at different times of the day. A modified "reverse C" of trees and dense bush in dark hues of browns, yellows, and greens capture the right foreground as our eyes slip down along a river and treed shoreline in various shades of blues and greens, rising to a heavenly sky in the distance. Is this tranquil scene her metaphor for redemption or hope? This size of painting in the day would sell for $25 today older works, such as this on Upson Board, are harder and harder to find. As are these sleepy untouched forks in the St. Lucie River.