King Protea by Mary Spears

Painted Paper Collage on Panel
18" h x 36" w

The process of collage takes Mary’s work into a new dimension. The use of Mary’s hand painted papers and additional hand made papers from around the globe create interesting texture and exaggerated movement in these collages. The effect is a visual cross between painting, mosaic and block printing. Light and color and shape taking flowers and water and landscapes to the edge of abstraction and back again.

My friend’s yard has a large protea bush right at the entry. I’d never really noticed it before. Generally, it’s kind of leggy–lots of branches, not a lot of leaves–so I wondered why it was prominently featured. In November I happened to be there and the shrubby bush had been transformed. Pink flowers everywhere! - Mary Spears

Colorful, playful, and bold, Mary Spears’s fine art collages take you to the essence of tropical Hawaii. A successful painter and printmaker for many years, Mary became inspired by the mosaics of Pompeii and began this exciting new direction in her work. Each piece awakens the feeling of joyful whimsy as you view the lovely overall painting and then the little pieces of torn, hand-painted paper that make it up.

An active art instructor, Mary teaches at the Four Seasons Hualalai as the artist-in-residence at KeʻOlu. She’s designed fabric for Kahala Sportswear, and logos for Liquid Robotics, Jupiter Research Foundation, Bioscape Hawaii and others. Her artwork is in private and public collections including the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Chicago Lighthouse, the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, the Fairmont Wailea, and Kaiser Permanente. She’s been featured in numerous publications include Artists & Illustrators Magazine, Santa Fe’s THE Magazine, the award-winning coffee table book Aloha Expressionism by Contemporary Hawaii Artists, and local Hawaii and corporate publications.