Mary Lou Pilnick

Monterey, California

Mary Lou started painting in a workshop for beginners offered by the Art Activity Center in beautiful Yosemite National Park. She has completed a course of study in watercolor at the historic Swinburne School in Newport, Rhode Island, taken courses in Fairfax, Virginia, and participated in additional workshops at Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks.

Mary Lou's interest in painting progressed from hobby to full-time vocation. She focuses on places: landmarks, landscapes, houses, churches, and shops. She has painted across the United States from California to Maine, and overseas in Hawaii, England, and France.

In San Francisco, her seascapes and bridge views were exhibited at the Golden Gate Bridge Gift Shop and the Treasure Island Museum. In Northern Virginia, she affiliated with The Portrait Guild of Fairfax where she began painting house portraits; the Loft Gallery in the historic town of Occoquan, where she was a featured artist; and the Springfield Art Guild, in which she was elected President. Her art has been exhibited at art shows and festivals on the east coast from Richmond, Virginia to Annapolis, Maryland.  On the Monterey Peninsula, her watercolors have been displayed in shows at the Monterey Museum of Art at La Mirada and the Thomas Kinkade Museum and Cultural Center, and she was an award winner in the Monterey Plein Air Art Festival, and in the Juried Visual Arts competition at the 67th Monterey County Fair.

Mary Lou devotes much of her time to creating house portraits on commission for individual homeowners, family heirloom gifts, and real estate closings. She works from photographs and has painted homes from Italy, Belgium, Canada, and most of the States.