The Mary Blake's biography ...

The paintings of American artist and longtime Montmartre resident Mary Blake have always been praised for their fascinating harmonies of color and lively spirit.

Born in 1946 in East Hartford, Connecticut, USA, on what has now become the quintessential American "Main Street", Mary says : "Yes, I had it all -a front porch, a backyard and a vegetable garden !" The youngest of five children of a devout Irish-American, Catholic family, Mary’s initial household artistic inspiration derived from photos of Pope Pius XII, Virgin Mary ceramics, and prints of the Sacred Heart. Mary Blake’s father, whose general store succumbed during the Great Depression, worked for the Hartford Post Office with great pride and assisted in the ministry of the local church. His passion was gardening. There wasn’t a flower he didn’t have, she claims. Mary believes that it was his flowers, and New England’s seasonal foliage - one tree she remembers in particular changing color each day-its winter skies, and her opportunity for solitude, that formed her artistic base. With an innate talent for drawing and intermittent professional artistic direction Mary began, as an adolescent, to gain recognition for her work. After obtaining a liberal arts degree in economics and marketing and commencing a career with the international group ITT on Wall Street, Mary decided to abandon the executive "downtown express". She enrolled at the famous Art Student’s League of New York. After a year, with the encouragement of teacher-artist Bruce Dorfman, who taught Mary the concepts of creativity, painting became Mary’s "raison d’être." Moving to Paris in 1972 with all the artistic tools necessary, Mary’s first exhibition, a series of lyrical abstract water colors, took place in 1974, and was cited in "Les Cahiers de la Peinture" for their "ambiance, atmosphere and special light." Group shows at The American Center on the Boulevard Raspail and at the Grand Palais followed.

Six months in India in 1977 ignited Mary’s sense of beauty and passion for color, as demonstrated in her storybook of exotic and imaginary bird-like creatures, Spencer Treetop Learns to Dance. In 1993, Mary Blake decided to take her easel to the streets of Paris to paint the monuments of conviviality - the city’s cafés. Certain of these café splendid paintings were published as postcards. Ten thousand found their way around the world. In 1995, Mary migrated to the Lepic-Abbesses section of Montmartre. This new neighborhood generously offered her an extraordinary bouquet of subjects for her future tableaux. She loved painting the petits commerçants and they loved becoming immortalized on her canvases. The following year, while painting the famous Café Les Deux Magots in the heart of Paris’ historic Saint Germain des Prés quarter, Mary Blake received a commission to paint the renowned Café de Flore for its Kyoto, Japan café. Other images adorned covers for 100,000 personal agendas - the promotion of the Japanese café chain "Café du Monde". Many of Mary Blake’s local Parisian scenes are found in the most prestigious boutiques of Montmartre as well as in The American Cathedral of Paris, the internationally known and historic Shakespeare and Company bookstore, and in noted private collections. Mary Blake’s mural of "La Fête de la Musique", depicting Paris’s annual allnight summer solstice celebration, adorns the Montmartre café Le Sancerre. The euphoric crowd dancing the night away typifies the spirit of Mary Blake and all the images she has painted in the city she calls "home". The dream to be in Paris is realized with every stroke of her brush.