Mary Gilardi, Magnolia, Grandiflora

Mary Gilardi, ‘Rhododendron’

Mary Clifford Gilardi

Kentfield, California  

marygilardi@hotmail.com

marycgilardipaintings.blogspot.com

Since my retirement as an elementary school Art teacher, I am able to devote more of my time to  my own artistic endeavors.  I enjoy painting in both oil and watercolor. My subjects include Still Life Subjects, Landscapes, Outdoor Garden Settings, and Botanicals. 

I am a native Californian.  I was born in San Francisco, grew up in Marin County, and was educated at local schools. I graduated from San Francisco College for Women with a major in Art and attended graduate school at Dominican College where I received my California Elementary Teaching Credential.

My work was accepted to the Filoli Spring 2010 Teacher Student Exhibit and to the Filoli International Juried Botanical Art exhibit in the spring of 2014.

I am a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists ASBA and the Northern California Society of Botanical Artists NCalSBA. I have exhibited paintings with the NCalSBA in the Annual Plants Illustrated Exhibitions at the University of California Botanical Gardens in Berkeley. I exhibited my painting “Red Geraniums “in the ASBA International Small Works Exhibit in October 2017

My paintings “Artichoke” Cynara solymus and “Geranium” Pelargonium “Brilliant” were accepted to the NCalSBA Alcatraz Florilegium. The entire Florilegium is on rotating display in venues throughout California and on Alcatraz Island and can be seen in the published catalogue “The Alcatraz Florilegium”

 I am currently working with the NCalSBA in creating a Florilegium of Mt. Tamalpais, in Marin County. 

My paintings: Calypso bulbosa, Fairy slipper orchid; Dryopteris arguta, coastal wood fern, and Iris douglasiana, Douglas iris were accepted to the first exhibit of the collection in October 2020.

As a member of the Marin County Watercolor Society, I have exhibited my work in several MCWS shows. My paintings have also been accepted to juried exhibitions at the Falkirk Cultural Center in San Rafael and the Northern California Aqua Areas Watercolor Shows. I have also displayed my work in several local art exhibitions. 

In June of 2006, I retired from teaching after twenty years as the Art Teacher at Bacich Elementary School in Kentfield. I enjoyed the wonderful experience of bringing art into the lives of children by working with them in a variety of art media and introducing them to the lives and works of many famous artists. I now volunteer several times a month teaching art lessons for my grandchildren’s classes at Neil Cummins Elementary School in Larkspur.

My paintings are on display in private collections throughout the United States and Europe.

I live in Kentfield, with my husband Richard. We have three grown children and two grandchildren who all live in Marin County.