Mary Ann Lord b. 1931

British landscape painter in oils and watercolours, teacher.

Mary Lord was born in Birstall, near Leeds, in Yorkshire. In 1943 she won a late-developer’s scholarship to Batley Grammar School. From 1948–50 she attended Dewsbury and Batley College of Art, where Robert Lee was an influential teacher, then going to Leeds College of Art, 1950–3, under Richard Macdonald and Tommy Watt. She worked in Batley Library, 1953–5, and as a museum assistant at Bankfield Museum, Halifax (1955 – 60), continuing to paint in her spare time. For about the next 30 years Mary Lord taught at venues such as Swarthmore Adult Education Centre, Leeds College of Art and Leeds College of Technology, ceasing in 1991 so as to concentrate on her own painting.

Her first important show was at Batley Art Gallery in 1957. She also showed widely in mixed shows such as West Riding Artists, Northern Young Artists, Goosewell Gallery in Menston and in Four Women Artists, at Wakefield City Art Gallery, in 1961. In 1985 Lord had a solo show of great importance at Bankfield Museum; in 1991 she was included in ‘Images of the Yorkshire Landscape’, organised by Sheeran Lock, which toured to Leeds, Bradford and York; and in 1992 she had her first exhibition in London at Leighton House. The Yorkshire Post art critic W T Oliver said of Lord that “there is no more sensitive painter of the Northern landscape.”

She has remained in the Leeds area all her life, maintaining her studio in Birstall, and is regarded as the city’s premier landscape artist.

Known for her powerful oil paintings and delicate watercolours, her work is usually painted from an elevated position and record her response to both the landscape and the season. The changing seasons and times of day navigate her expressionist style of the Yorkshire landscapes she depicts.

'All these paintings were inspired by my deep feelings for the landscape of the North of England, especially West Yorkshire and the Yorkshire Dales, which I have known all my life'.

Lord’s artworks tend to focus on the months, weather or viewpoints with such titles such as 'March Valley', 'Summer Morning', 'Excitement of the first snow' and 'Misty Morning'. She paints both oils and watercolours incorporating her deep brushstrokes in vivid colours or muted tones depending on the ambient scenery, stating that 'few of my landscapes are specific views but are personal interpretations of a particular stretch of countryside’.

Much of her work is publicly or privately owned. Many universities and art galleries have her work within their collection including University of Manchester and The Hepworth, with Leeds Art Gallery housing six within their collection; Bradford Art Galleries and Museums, Ferens Art Gallery in Hull and other public collections.