Archibald, Mary Ann

Mary Ann was born and raised in Nova Scotia and continues her life-long passion and interest in the arts.

She has exhibited her work in group and solo shows in Halifax, Toronto and Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. Her work is held in collections throughout North America.

Mary Ann Archibald's paintings are valued for their expressive, painterly and often lyrical qualities. She especially enjoys painting people and things from life and plein air landscapes.

She was a juried painter in the Parrsboro International Plein Air Festival (PIPAF) 2022.

Mary Ann’s painting “Cobequid Trail at Low Tide No. 1” was selected during the Colchester Art Acquisition Show for 2021.

In 2009 Democracy 250 commissioned Archibald to create William Hall, V.C.'s portrait, which hangs in the Nova Scotia legislature. In 2011, Lieutenant Governor, Her Honour, Mayan E. Francis' office commissioned a figurative landscape portrait painting of William Hall, V.C.

Artist Statement

I paint primarily in oils and try to express the energy I feel for whatever subject I paint. My favourite subjects include people, still life and landscapes.

Where possible, I paint from life as it provides full visual information I use to create a painting.

I am drawn to our rocky shorelines and the bucolic rural areas of the north Atlantic region and feel blessed to be born and raised here. It’s the small, intimate experience or fleeting moment in time that live in the heart of my work.

I consider my work to be a form of lyrical realism in that my paintings are a personal statement of my experiences and surroundings that enrich our lives. They’re paintings of a practical matter that I consider beautiful and want to connect with the viewer through.