Mary Lou Dauray is an award-winning artist and consummate traveler. While journeying throughout the United States, Europe and the Far East, she painted, sketched and photographed the awe-inspiring vistas. Her most highly acclaimed series of watercolors and oil paintings were inspired by her trip to Iceland. She states, “This wild and incredibly beautiful island left me with deep reverence for the spirit of our sacred and unpredictable planet.”

Her most recent work is focused on her concern about global warming, climate breakdown and pollution.

She has exhibited her work throughout the United States including those at the Virginia Museum, Blue Planet juried show sponsored by The Pacific Coast Region of Women’s Caucus for Art, Gallery 111 juried exhibition in Sausalito, CA, and Runnymede Corporate Headquarters, Virginia. Her work is in numerous public collections including the Sophie Davis Medical School, City College of New York, and many private collections.

Mary Lou, who is also an award-winning interior designer, received Best of Show at ARTworksSF and she is a member of the Transparent Watercolor Society of  America.

She received a BA from the University of Rhode Island. She studied art the Louvre and Sorbonne, in France.

Artist Statement

My art reflects my creative response to both travel experiences and current global events.   Although I have been painting for many years, most recently my work expresses a deep concern about global warming, climate change and pollution as well as anxiety about world-wide inequality and injustice.  My work could be considered semi-abstract.  In some instances, especially with the watercolors, it is geometrical and angular.  Influences and inspiration have come from Eugene Delacroix’s powerful pieces; Howard Hodgkin’s broad and colorful brush stokes; Helen Frankenthaler’s ambitious and innovative work; Morris Louis’s abstract color washes; Joan Mitchell’s freedom and strength; and Ross Bleckner’s deeply moving and emotional oils and watercolors.  The materials I use in my paintings are watercolor, oil paint, and painted plastic. My hope is that I will be able to continue to find excitement and purpose in my work and I believe, also, that artists are world changers.