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Mary-Lou Ashton
Paintings/Prints/Photography
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Artist Biography:
With early retirement came the freedom for Mary-Lou to pursue her lifelong passion for the visual arts. For a mid-1950's blue-collared family, a guaranteed income was encouraged as a career choice rather than working with art. This attitude led her to work medical laboratory technology for 12 years. During this time she completed a 3-year BA with a major in anthropology at the University of Toronto, extension. She then studied science at York University, Toronto, receiving a master’s degree in cell biology.
While working at the university, she persued her interest in visual arts by attending evening art courses at the local high schools and community colleges, studied Sumi-e under Jean Lew of Toronto, and exhibited at weekend art shows such as Kiwanis fund-raisers and twice at the juried Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. In the early nineties, her desire to move into visual arts as a full-time career, prompted her to complete a BFA (visual arts, studio) at York University, Toronto. The mandate of the York’s Fine Art Department is the development of creativity. She had long desired to move into the more abstracted art form; studies at York did this for her. Since then she has pursued her artwork on a full-time basis at her home-based studio just east of Lake on the Mountain.
Generally an introverted person, her art is a means of self-expression. Although she also takes her inspiration from her natural surroundings, mostly it comes from within herself: experiences, memories and emotions. She loves the primary colors and frequently paints directly from the tube. If there is general theme to her eclectic work, it is the use of red, blue and yellow.
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