Mary Beagle began her artistic endeavors early in life. As a young child her parents encouraged development of her talent through her early school years when she took any art classes available to her, which inevitably lead to further study in college. Mary attended the Hartford Art School of the University of Hartford, Bloomfield, Connecticut, where she majored in painting, receiving a five-year Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, with honors. After graduation she worked for a large corporation as Senior Media Coordinator. In 1992, she won Bronze and Silver Quill awards from the IABC. And, in 1993, the Golden Quill Award for her work in design and execution of a company environmental campaign. In 1994 she started devoting more time to her love of painting and once again began entering juried shows and competitions. Mary, who is part Native American, has been interested in the culture for many years. Her work is mostly of women doing routine tasks of daily life or participating in cultural celebrations. She finds faces of the elders, the most interesting and expressive. Last year she began including animals in her paintings. "I think of my work as interpretive portraits of my subjects. Whether the subject is human or animal, I try to show a feeling of serenity and harmony with nature. We could learn much from those cultures that still revere the earth and our connection to it." Research for her paintings is done by attending Native American gatherings and traveling throughout the southwest, visiting historical ruins, museums and points of interest pertaining to native cultures. Mary works in oil on canvas, offering selected paintings as limited edition prints. For the last several years she has exhibited her work in regional juried outdoor art shows in Connecticut and Maine, as well as in juried competitions in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Texas and Colorado. Mary's work is in collections throughout the United States and in England and Russia. Her work has been seen in Southwest Art Magazine, Art of the West Magazine, and a special feature in the Hartford Courant. Mary is a Charter Member of the National Museum of the American Indian and an Associate Member of both the Oil Painters of America and the American Academy of Women Artists.