Mary Linville: Retrospective

FLORENCE-The Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts is pleased to present Mary Linville: Retrospective, a memorial exhibition that features the paintings and drawings of the late Mary Linville (1941-2024) beginning November 2, 2025, and continuing through January 5, 2026.

Linville, a long-time member of the Shoals Artist Guild, was not only very talented, but also prolific in giving what she learned back to her community, such as teaching countless watercolor classes and offering many demonstrations throughout her artistic career. She had an amazing passion for art and generously shared her creativity with others. Mary Linville truly exemplified a life artfully lived! An opening reception for this memorial exhibition will be held 2-4 pm, Sunday, November 2nd at the Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts.

Born in Wayne County, TN, Linville was first inspired by her simple, rural surroundings.  She was stirred by the beauty she saw around her and the works of other artists, such as Andrew Wyeth, Winslow Homer, and Edgar Whitney. She said that she paints because of a need inside her to express the beauty and wonder she sees, which provides fulfillment of her inner self.

Linville produced a wide variety of work, including florals, local historic places, abstracts, and landscapes. She stated, “Subject matter is no problem, art is everywhere.  Landscapes are my favorite and everywhere you look there are landscapes.”  Additionally, she said, “Watercolor is my first love!” and she taught many classes sharing this love with others. Although she was mainly a watercolorist, she also worked in oils, acrylic, mixed media, and pastels.

While she considered herself to be a self-taught artist, she studied and participated in numerous workshops with accomplished artists across the country, such as Tony Couch of Georgia, Zolton Szabo of North Carolina, and Margaret Martin of New York. She studied oil with Billy Kirk of Mississippi and with Heidi Moran of Arizona. As a private instructor, she conducted workshops across Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Her interests also included pottery and photography. She felt that all media is linked together. She was always learning new ways to create art!

Linville described some of her artwork as mood paintings, “This I do, with nothing sketched on paper. Sometimes I don’t have any particular thing in mind when I begin, I just follow whatever is happening with the paint to form the landscape. This can be very exciting. I usually start with a wet-on-wet technique, make everything blend together and then use a process of ‘lifting out’ the damp pigment with an almost ‘thirsty’ brush to form negative shapes – tree trunks, a light house, moon, etc.”

Linville has received countless awards throughout the span of her artistic career, and her artwork can be found in collections across not only the United States, but also in New Zealand, Australia, England, China, Japan, Norway, and Sweden. Potential collectors will be pleased to learn that many of the works displayed in this retrospective exhibit will be available for sale.

For more information, contact the Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts.

The Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts is free and open to the public Monday-Friday from 9-4 and on Sundays from 1-4. The Art Center is located at 217 E. Tuscaloosa St. Florence, AL and can be reached by calling 256-760-6379.

Media Release/Grace Ann Griffin
Outreach Coordinator
Florence Arts & Museums