Artist Statement

Drawing, painting and creating is just part of who I am.

Some of my first memories of image making began when my sister handed me one of those little 110-film cameras. I can still recall the scent of those blue cube flashes that popped and rotated, like soldiers, ready for the next shot. In my home, if you placed a sheet of paper on a table, scrap paper or even a piece of homework, by the time you turned around there would be a drawing on it, either a drawing of an outfit my mother was dreaming about sewing or a ballpoint ink portrait of a sailor from WWII or other items that define a life. There was original artwork around. My mother had studied art at Mt. St. Bernard before it was St. F.X. She studied with Sister Ovid and she always shared the joy she had in those classes as evidenced in the various bits of pottery and paintings littering our house. She set me up with my first studio -- at the top of the stairs under the eaves when I was nine or ten. Oil paints. Turpentine. Many hours getting lost in a world of my making.

Like many artists, I am primarily self-taught, although I took a several community courses and signed up for classes at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. These courses helped begin unravel some of the mystery behind the various qualities and character of paint, along with the language of art. Miles on the brush now and I think I maybe am starting to understand where I’m going with this.

Biography

Mary Ann’s portraits, figurative, still life and landscape paintings are valued for their expressive, painterly and often lyrical qualities. She especially enjoys painting people and still life from life and plein air landscapes.

A life-long resident of Nova Scotia, Archibald has a genuine passion and broad interest in the arts and has studied fine art in the community, at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and privately in the United States.

In 2014 Archibald contributed reference material to Cliff Eyland's massive public installation "Library Cards" for the flagship Halifax Central Library on Spring Garden Road. When the reality show "The Amazing Race" blew through town in 2015, they made their teams count the black and white paintings amongst 5,000 3x5 inch paintings hanging on the library's wall." All of those images (134 being the correct answer for the teams to advance) were based on Archibald's photographic reference material she provided.

In 2009 Democracy 250 commissioned Mary Ann to create William Hall, V.C.’s portrait, which hangs in the Nova Scotia legislature. In 2011, Lieutenant Governor, Her Honour, Mayan E. Francis’ office commissioned a figurative landscape portrait painting of William Hall, V.C., which hangs in the dining room of Government House in Halifax.

In 2003 Mary Ann sparked an international art project from five continents called "Global Village." Twenty-artists created a 22 by 30-inch original watercolour painting, which traveled about 40,000 miles before its completion.

"From the Wild: a collection of original poems" by Mary Ann Archibald features a still life painting of a rose she bought, planted, grew, cut and painted.

Mary Ann founded @ArtsHalifax in 2012, a website celebrating artists in Halifax.