The Art Students League of New York


Mary Beth McKenzie
Painting from Life

Mary Beth McKenzie always works directly from life, and many of her subjects are friends and family members. She is able to match her impressions with a concern for the formal aspects of pictorial construction. There is always a subtle mood to her work. She has said, "When I paint someone, I am less concerned with likeness than with the character or spirit of that person."

Ms. McKenzie was born in Cleveland. She studied at the Art Students League of New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Cooper School in Cleveland, and the National Academy of Design. Her teachers were Robert Philipp, Robert Brackman, Jos" Cintron, Daniel Greene and Burton Silverman. She teaches at both the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design and was elected to full membership in the Academy in 1994. Watson-Guptill published her book A Painterly Approach in 1987. Her work was included in the Metropolitan Museum of Artäs exhibition, Looking At You in 2001.

Ms. McKenzie is represented in many public collections, including that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian Institute, the Brooklyn Museum, the New Britain Museum of American Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Butler Museum of American Art, the Museum of the City of New York, the National Academy of Design and the New-York Historical Society. Her paintings are in numerous private collections.



Copyright © 2008 The Art Students League of New York  |  215 West 57th Street, New York HomeLeague NewsPublicationsContact
Contact Publications Affiliations Awards Teaching Education Biography Home