Meet Marie Massey

We recently connected with Marie Massey and have shared our conversation below.

Marie, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

I have always drawn and painted. It came naturally to me and I spent much of my free time doing it for the pure joy and comfort that it gave me. As I progressed through grade school and then high school, I began winning art contests and receiving accolades for my work which contributed to my confidence and self esteem. I didn’t have the confidence I would be able to support myself as an artist, however. It seemed impossible so I majored in Political Economy as a pre-law option, envisioning myself as a lawyer. Then I had to defend myself in an actual court of law and that experience, which happened in my senior year at UC Berkeley, changed my mind. The reality of spending my life in a court room hit home and I realized that I would be hopelessly miserable if I chose to be a lawyer. After graduation I went into Sales and Marketing for various start up companies in the Silicon Valley. Marketing involved written and visual communication and enabled me be creative. Always a goal oriented person, I got an MBA in Marketing and Business Development in order to educate myself and eventually started my own marketing and business development consultancy. Having that business knowledge base to back up my written and creative skills helped me feel confident as a young woman in the male dominated corporate world. Then in 1999, things shifted and I had to move to Colorado with my husband for family reasons. A fish out of water in Colorado with no connections, I could not find a job.

Circumstances had changed. I was no longer in a situationwhere I had to work to support myself, so after months of trying to find a job to no avail, I decided I would return to my first love of art and take some classes. Over the proceeding years I continued to take art classes. I obtained gallery representation and I started entering shows and winning awards. In 2012 I started teaching art and last year I became a Master Artist Mentor. I continue to read books by great artists whose work I admire, take the occasional workshop and to experiment with techniques.

I feel like we all have our unique strengths as well as things that bring us joy. For me that is drawing and painting. Over my 25 years working as a professional artist I have received many rejections from shows, from galleries, etc. and although it doesn’t feel good when your work is rejected, there are many more acceptances and accolades as well. I know my work is high quality and technically sound because I have educated myself on the “rules” of art and I have come to realize that those “rules” are not laws but guidelines to help you solve or avoid a problem in design or technique.

My self esteem comes from the why of it. Why am I painting? Because I love it. My confidence comes from the fact that I have educated myself on the technicalities of producing high quality work and have marshaled my innate interest and ability to do so over many years. I recommend going with your strengths and broadening and developing those strengths with education and experience in order to feel confident in the face of rejection and validated in the face of acceptances and accolades.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

My paintings are impressionistic in nature with elements of expressionism and in a contemporary style so they have a dynamic, engaging and vital quality to them. I use a Painting in Layers Method that enables me to achieve optimal values, design and color. I do a line drawing on canvas in red, acrylic paint to create my design for the painting and a map to paint into. The first 2 layers are in the complementary colors but in the same values as the final colors, so what will ultimately be a cool blue in a light to medium value such as a distant mountain, I under paint with warm colors in that same value such as pink or orange. I sketch and re-sketch throughout the painting process, re-evaluating the relative sizes and shapes, angles and placement of things and I use an open stroke so that previous layers peek through in the final painting.
The pop of the discord or complementary color is seen and not seen throughout the painting by the viewer. The eye does not read a difference in terms of value, but does see the difference in terms of complementary color, providing color harmony and color interest throughout the painting, effectively leading the viewer to the focal point and then on an exploration around the painting.
The under-painting also helps to carry the image when viewed at a distance and reflects more color light back to the viewer, giving the painting a powerful sense of vitality and luminosity. Painting in layers with some of the bright complementary colors showing through also provides depth. It works especially well to capture the transparent and reflective qualities of atmosphere and water.
After 25 years of painting professionally, I find myself still endlessly fascinated by the ephemeral qualities of light and movement in land and seascape, figure and wildlife subjects. I have an abiding love for plein air painting because every time I do it, I discover or learn something new: a new way to express transparency of water, or to paint the color of the air or atmosphere, a new way to use edges to express how a tree lives in the landscape or a bird moves in the sky, an unexpected color or shape or angle. My experiences and discoveries in plein air painting inform my studio painting as well where I love to paint large scale work. I organize my year around plein air painting events doing up to 7 juried plein air events each year.
Another important aspect of my art practice is teaching which I began doing at the Carmel Art Institute in the Barnyard in 2012, then moving to the City of Monterey and finally transitioning to teaching plein air when Covid hit 2019 to present. Teaching continues to be very rewarding. It elevates the quality of my own work and gives me the joy of helping other talented artists learn the skills to bring their work to the next level and watching them succeed in reaching their goals.

2025 is shaping up to be the best year yet. I will be doing 7 plein air painting events in beautiful locations in California and Colorado. I will also be doing Santa Cruz Open Studios on the first and third weekends of October as well as participating in many juried exhibitions throughout the US. I will be teaching my Plein Air Painting in Layers workshops throughout the Central Coast. I am also thrilled to be represented by 5 premiere galleries: Reflections Elegante Gallery in Monterey, CA, The SFWA Gallery in San Francisco, CA, 480 Lighthouse Gallery in Pacific Grove, CA, Art of Santa Cruz in Capitola, CA, and the ACEP Gallery in Estes Park, CO just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I think it is really important to go with your strengths. What are you naturally good at? What brings you joy? Then develop that talent/abiding interest/fascination with education and training.

I think my MBA gave me a great knowledge of business and marketing which I draw on as an artist. For example I have a distribution strategy for my paintings which includes galleries, juried shows, plein air events, and open studios.

I also have a marketing strategy for my art business which includes social media, email communications, demos, and teaching as well as branding with my logo and a tag line, “Painting the Beauty of Everyday”.

I think it is important to join industry groups so that you can learn from and collaborate with your peers.

Lastly I encourage young artists/entrepreneurs to find mentors, someone whose work you admire, someone whose career you admire and someone that you feel you could have a friendship with. It doesn’t have to be just one person. Different people have different things to offer.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

It is impossible to choose who has been the most helpful to me in overcoming challenges in my journey as a professional Artist. I have been blessed with amazing teachers and mentors. My high school art teacher, that recognized my ability, encouraged and guided me. She taught me that art was a valuable pursuit. Two major instructors that shaped my artistic development were Barbara Marquardt who I studied with for 8 years. She taught me the Painting-in-layers method which helped me transform my work from hyper-realistic to impressionistic and expressive. The Painting in Layers method also teaches about color, design and technique. I feel so blessed to have studied with Barbara because she was in her eighties at the time and has since passed away. I asked her if I could teach her method and she agreed. The other most important instructor and mentor in my art life is Patti Andre, who I worked with closely for several years and still have a Mentee-Mentor relationship with today. One of the most valuable things that Patti said to me was: “Do something for your art everyday”.

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