The paintings hanging in the Mary Titus Gallery/Studio are large, bold, colorful, and abstract. But Mary Titus, the woman behind these vivid works, admits that her vision for her art was not always this confident. She says that her earlier works were safe renderings of dreamy coastal vistas. "I was pleasing people more than pleasing myself," Titus says.
After her gallery in The Barnyard closed in 1999, the artist began painting at her home in the Carmel Highlands. Without people watching her work, Titus was drawn more and more to abstraction in her paintings. "I didn't have to explain to the public what I was painting," she says.
Titus was introduced to the arts as a girl growing up in Florida. She recalls watching her mother draw. "I would think that that was magic," Titus says.
In 1983, Titus stopped into Carmel on a whim during a trip and got her work accepted in a Carmel gallery. She moved to the area shortly after that welcome introduction. She has had a gallery in downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea since 2010. "This is a magical place," Titus says of her home.
Titus calls herself an intuitive painter and believes her work differs from other Carmel artists in one major way. "I think I stand out, because my paintings have a lot of emotions in them," she says.
For anyone interested in pursuing a career in art, Titus has one piece of advice: "To be your authentic self is key."
Source: visit Carmel
