Artist Statement

Mandy Main creates luminous oil paintings of the Western landscape, informed by nature and capturing a personal sense of place.  Main focuses on panoramic vistas and receding perspectives with a sense of depth and movement and pushes these elements to draw the viewer into the painting.  The fleeting nature of light and clouds become dramatic subjects in her work.  Main is an art historian with a passion for 19^th Century American landscapes, especially the Luminists, whose works remain an undying source of inspiration.  The work is dreamy and atmospheric, a view into traditional art history with a modern sensibility.

The paintings are rendered in oils on canvas or wood panels using a subdued palette of warm colors, applied in layers of glazes to achieve a luminous effect.  Main works in series, usually six paintings at a time, executed in her studio where she paints in silence and total concentration.  She envisions the final creation before beginning a painting.  The paintings are always on her mind, she even works on them while sleeping.  Main continually comes up with ideas of what she wants to say about nature and the world and she never wants to stop painting, she has to keep expressing these ideas.  In this way the paintings are a spiritual outpouring. 

Selected Biography

Mandy Main studied Art and Art History at Stanford University and received an MBA in Arts Management from UCLA.  Her work is shown in galleries in California, Oregon and Washington and sells nation-wide and even internationally through her on-line galleries.  She has been in many group shows and juried shows.  Main has had one person exhibits in Oregon, Los Angeles, Palm Springs and Palm Desert and has shown in art fairs in NYC.  She has won numerous awards including Best of Show and People’s Choice.  Her work is in a number of public collections owned by such institutions as hotels, hospitals, colleges, and wineries.  She loves to travel and has had the good fortune to live in France, Italy and Thailand as well as in Washington, Oregon and California.  Art has always been her passion and a part of her being is woven into every painting she creates.  She currently resides with her husband of 40 years in Rancho Mirage, California.