Personal Work

Colors. I love them so much they give me goosebumps. I have difficulty painting with a limited palette and often create works of art that include every color of the rainbow, as you will notice. Red Sky was the first work I created solely with a palette knife. I became fascinated with the way it made me feel like I was painting with butter. This work is inspired by color and shape relationships and follows a horizontal linear pattern that is commonly utilized in my landscape pieces. For My Blanket Sky Ablaze, I stepped away from my comfort zone and acted on an impulse to work more “painterly”. Swifts of color ride the winds and gestural strokes allude to an open desert plain. I have a fascination with the partnership between light blue and a deep scarlet red. Cranes Neck Point was painted from memory of an actual shore front on the north shore of Long Island and was inspired by these colors.

This hangs in a child’s room. Prints available. Visit maryjoallegra@wordpress.com to purchase Fine Art prints. Note card sets available.

These two quick sketches were done on a mini notepad while riding the LIRR to Manhattan in 2005. The daily commuter experience is something that seems like paradise at first: 2+hours with no one to bother you and a chance to catch up on some shut eye or that steamy page turner in your purse. But after a year, it looses is charisma. Especially when you are fortunate to sit next to the man who seems to feel that his nasal passage is a circus tent. It does happen. Honest.

I am hopeful that, at the very least, someone can relate and share a chuckle.