Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Marie Gray. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Marie, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

How I learned to do my art to put it simply is by putting in a lot of time and work. Honestly once I discovered art I wanted to know everything I could. One can have natural talent but one also needs to put in the time by doing the practice and work. Any extra time I have I try to paint. The more time you paint the more you learn. As an artist I learn something new from every piece I paint. Growing up I took as many art classes as I could while I was in school and now I still take workshops from artists I admire to learn new techniques or share what I have learned. I am always trying to expand my work or what I am trying to convey in my paintings. I believe I could have developed my art faster had I known who to go to for classes and training when I was younger. There is so much available out there that I was not aware of years ago.

It is definitely essential to work hard and put yourself out there, people have to know you are there in order for you to succeed by selling what we create. Art is a very personal part of oneself to present to the world. The biggest obstacle I have faced would probably be myself, I am an introvert and pretty shy initially so putting artwork and myself out to the world can be intimidating.

Marie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I know I was always doing little drawings and coloring things as a kid. A profound time was in my early teens when I saw some sketches a family friend was doing in high school. I was fascinated that she could draw a portrait and capture someones personalty on paper. She explained that she was learning this in her art class from her art teacher. After that my goal was to get to those art classes in high school to learn what she was learning. I went to private schools in a small town that did not provide art so this was new to me. From that day on I was drawing everything I could, (mostly people) to me they were unique and I was trying to capture their essence. I learned so much from my high school art teacher, I am ever so thankful for her. I did go to schools and took all the art classes they had and ended up getting my BFA at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, TX. For several years I worked and did my art part time by doing commissions or local shows and workshops.

Now for a number of years I have been doing my art full time and now spend my days painting for either clients or to produce work for gallery shows.

When I am doing a commission for a client the usual process consists of planning out the clients vision; be it a piece from an old photo or an idea. Through sketches and communication with the client we will get to the point where I can create their vision.

I am proud for the personal growth in the quality of artwork I am creating. I am always striving to learn and I have been able to participate in some higher level art shows that was a goal I set for myself years ago.

What I want people to know about my work is that I have really high standards for every piece I start to be sure I create the highest quality piece possible.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I can not deny there have been many struggles in my journey but who hasn’t experienced that. I wouldn’t be where I am today were it not for my faith. It is what drives my art and all my inspiration. It took me eight years to get my bachelors degree in art because I had to work multiple jobs and was doing as many online classes the school had to offer; I ultimately did not want to end up with a massive amount of student loans. Being raised in a large single parent family taught me the values of hard work and overcoming obstacles, I believe this also gave me a more mature outlook and I took my education more seriously.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I would have loved the opportunity to travel more and experience new places for myself. I believe this could have expanded my experience and life in my art work at a younger age. I also wish I would have known about workshops and artist communities. Being able to work with other artists I admired in order to learn from them could have helped alleviate some of the trials and errors along the way.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: marie_grays_fine_art
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Marie-Grays-Fine-Art-208183945867262/
• Other: tiktok- @mgrayfineart