A Reunion of Four Artists, Their Friendship, Their Friends, and Their Students
Meet the Artists
Mary Minifie
Prescott Instructor
Mary Minifie was born in Bethlehem, PA., graduated from Wellesley College and received her MFA from Boston University School of Fine Art. She spent nine years studying the Boston School method of painting and portraiture with Paul Ingbretson.
She has been a professional portrait painter for the last twenty years with many commissions, both private and public. Her portraits are in the Moakley Federal Courthouse; the John Adams Courthouse; the John MacCormack Courthouse; the Thurgood Marshall Building, Washington, DC; MIT; Children’s Hospital, Boston; Boston University; Harvard University; King’s Chapel, Boston; Virginia State Courthouse; Union College, Schenectady, NY; Dana Farber Cancer Institute; Groton School; National Cathedral, Washington, DC; Boston Ballet.
She is a member of the Guild of Boston Artists and has served on their board for many years. Her many awards for painting include the Guild’s Tarbell Prize, the Frank Benson award and the Gammell award several times over. She has received awards from the Art Renewal Center (ARC), The Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Prize and the John Stobart grant.
Mary has had articles in both the American Artist Magazine and the International Artists Magazine.
Katharine Bell
Most of my work for the last 50 years has been by commission. Though none of the work in this room were commissioned.
Catherine Corum
I began watercolor painting on hiking trips to the mountains. For that reason, New Mexico with its long views and visible geology has become one of my favorite subjects.
Sumi-e painting, which I studied for a time, has influenced my style in that I often leave paper unpainted; while, at the same time, perceptible pencil lines in my paintings connect, in my mind, to the spare watercolors of Cézanne. I am challenged, too, by the paintings of John Marin for his modernist take on New Mexico landscapes, as I strive for simple abstraction in my work.
In Groton, Mary Minifie taught the technique of egg-tempera and we gathered to paint portraits. Katharine Bell organized plein air painting in her garden and elsewhere. Somehow, painting with others is the magic.
We left Groton for the west and later taught internationally in schools in Egypt, Peru, the Philippines and Kenya. This allowed us to travel and to hike on our vacations which reinforced my love of watercolor sketching, the materials so easily carried in a pack.
We returned to the states and lived for a time in San Diego where I studied painting. And when we left San Diego, we landed in Santa Fe where I have continued to find community in the company of fellow artists.
Emily Morse
Emily Morse was educated at Oberlin College, and received a BFA from The Maryland Institute College of Art. She studied for three years at the Ingbretson Studio in Manchester NH.