BIOGRAPHY;
Born in Quincy, Mass., Mary Curran Bitner, was raised and educated in Westchester County, New York. After graduating from The Ursuline School and The College of New Rochelle. Painting on her own, as a self-taught artist for many years, she gained some recognition. Her work has been shown and sold in galleries here in the Tampa Bay Area, as well as Key West. Her 3D Coral Reefs are hanging in homes nationally, and internationally, as far away as the Red Sea and Kuwait.
Mary Curran was an educator for 30 years. she taught a variety of grades and subjects. With retirement from the classroom, and more free time, she went back to college and studied Drawing, Painting, and Design at Hillsborough Community College -Ybor where she studied painting and drawing under Steve Holm and University of South Florida.
She is a founding member, Past President and Board Member of the North Tampa Arts League. In 2007, Mary Curran Bitner became the Art Curator of the Carrollwood Cultural Center where her vision took the Center from a brand new empty building to the largest Art Gallery in the Tampa Bay Area. The Gallery at the Carrollwood Cultural Center has earned a prestgious position in Tampa Bay for the beauty and quality of the Original Fine Art displayed it its exhibitions. Our artist retired from her Curatorship in 2011 and has turned her attention to her own career as an award winning nationally and internationally known artist. Presently she has concentrated on painting landscape in pastel.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
I am becoming increasingly conscious of painting as a woman with a very feminine spirit, I am passionate about creating paintings that are relevant to the meaning and experience of being alive in this magnificently beautiful world. Trying always to celebrate the beauty of life and all of creation, I endeavosr to create art that lifts the mind and spirit to higher realms to raise our consciousness to recognize that beauty and life are meant to be treasured. The pastel medium allows me to portray the beauty of American landscape before all our beautiful places are gone.
