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A wing of an early Victorian manor house in Blackheath,
a leafy suburb of London provides the perfect setting for Mary Woodin's studio and home with husband Andrew and three children. Her studio, on the first floor of the house, is in what was originally the billiard-room in Victorian times and with its original mouldings intact, it is the perfect setting as studio, gallery and occasional venue for musical soirees. Mary's interest in gardening began when she married and moved to Blackheath, but she has always maintained an interest in the natural world, working in watercolour, preferably from life.
First trained as a textile designer at Manchester Metropolitan University
and later as a ceramic designer at the Royal College of Art,
Mary has worked in all areas of surface pattern design. One of her first
major commissions was ceramic mural designs for London Underground's South Kensington station, a commission gained while she was still a student. The transition from her initial training as a designer has been quite natural and she brings to her illustration a designer's eye and sensibility. Naturally she has maintained an interest in surface design too and along with commissions for Wedgwood, she has also
created a range for Crate & Barrel.
Her ability to infuse her sensitively rendered paintings with a femininity
that is at the same time tasteful without being in the least bit cloying,
has meant that Mary has been in constant demand with design groups internationally,
proving ideal for all forms of packaging and stationery projects. Her work
is particularly popular in Japan, where it has been extensively used, most
often for stationery.
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A passionate gardener, Mary found that her dream assignment, from Running Press in Philadelphia provided her with the
perfect opportunity to record a full year in her garden, season by season.
The beautifully illustrated journal and sketch book, published as The
Painted Garden: A Year in Words and Watercolours, includes
records of planting, harvesting, and blooming throughout four seasons, together
with accounts of frequent visits from birds, butterflies, and other earthly
creatures. It provided a rare opportunity for an illustrator more used to
coping with the demands of short deadlines and a rapid turnover of different
projects. As so often happens with a project of this sort it gave Mary the
chance to experiment and consolidate a body of work that has undoubtedly
extended her range.
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The work that Mary produced resulted in a successions
of other work inspired by the sensive artwork that she created. A regular
collaborator with ArtAngels, who publish a classy collection
of Greetings Cards and prints, she continues to add to a growing collection
of images, many of which are available as prints and of course for re-use.
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Most recently, Mary has been experimenting with paintings of farmyard animals as part of the development of ideas for a Children's book series. A natural by-product of having a young family of her own, Mary's work is in constant demand by collectors and she regularly sells original artwork, either from showings at her own studio/gallery or through the gallery at The Artworks.
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