MUNTHE ART MONDAY: MARY WEST

Please introduce yourself and tell us about what you do.

I am a British artist, living and working in London. I studied Fine Art at the Slade, specialising in painting. I explore the shifting relationship between light, space, and memory through land and waterscapes. Blurring the line between abstraction and figuration, memories of nature inspire every work. Each painting is an emotional response to a place visited and shared. Working in oils, I embrace the material’s fluidity and unpredictability, allowing chance gestures and intuitive mark-making to shape the composition.

Mary is wearing our LYNX SHIRT and NEZZAZIN PANTS.

Could you explain more about how being a woman has affected your career?

I have found an incredible community of women through working as an artist. I am lucky to be represented by wonderful female gallerists and curators who champion, nurture and support my practice. I deeply value the creative conversations I have with other female artists of all ages. I love being able to share the highs and lows in what can often be a fairly solitary working environment. My work has evolved since having children, leaning more into abstraction and with a freedom and urgency that wasn’t as present in my earlier paintings.

What would you like people to notice in your artwork?

I would like people to have a visceral experience when looking at my paintings. As I paint more from memory than direct observation, the line is blurred between what is real and what is imagined, allowing the viewer to draw on their own memories and personal experiences. Through the process of painting a scene reveals itself to me, ultimately the final outcome is always a surprise. I hope the viewer keeps discovering unexpected moments in the painting that do not immediately reveal themselves and that they become lost in the painting in the same way as one can become lost in a landscape.

Mary is wearing our LYNX SHIRT and NEZZAZIN PANTS.

Can you name some other female artists that inspires you and explain why they do so?

When I was at art school, my first-year tutor was Jenny Saville, who I found to be incredibly kind and encouraging. She was hugely inspiring in terms of the act of painting and the joy of the process. She would bring me in pots of pigment and primers to try out. I love the monumental paintings of Flora Yukhnovich and Vanessa Raw. Each approaches the surface in a different way, but both manage to balance tenderness with vitality and strength. I get completely lost in their landscapes, and it is this escapism that I seek in my work.

What has been the most challenging aspect of being a woman in the arts?

The biggest challenge has been balancing motherhood. I have two teenage boys, and I virtually stopped painting until my youngest son went to school. It was at this point that I was able to pick up the paint brushes again and return to making work. However, it took several years for me to regain confidence. Many of my contemporaries from art school were surging ahead with their careers and I felt ashamed that I had floundered. In retrospect, I am so happy that I focused purely on being a mum when my boys were little. I felt old re-entering the art world approaching 40 but discovered no one cares how old you are. The only thing of any importance is your commitment to the work.

Mary is wearing our LYNX SHIRT and NEZZAZIN PANTS.