Mary by James Earley

Mary, the story behind the painting

Mary is a painting of a homeless girl from New York. I really wanted to paint this as there was so much going on in this scene. So many emotions hit you when you see it. I normally work on sketches and photos of homeless people that I meet, I try to get to know them as this helps with the portrait. In this instance I used a photo as a reference, a photo taken by my good friend and brilliant photographer Rob Sternitzky. I added two things to the painting, the first being a slogan on the back of her jacket which reads “You were supposed to Love Me”, the second is a barely visible jug on the floor that is labelled. This “invisible” jug can give the painting a completely different meaning.

original oil painting
Mary by JamesEarley original oil painting

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