The Gallery re-opened after its annual January closing with a show of many works by Penn Yan artist Mary Loomis Rickman. She chose the works to represent her growth as an artist under each of her many teachers, from high school days to the present.

   Born Mary Alice Loomis, in Victor, NY in 1937, she is married to Richard Rickman, and the mother of Richard and Rodney, for whom she interrupted her art education. She attended Victor High School for 3 years, graduating from Monroe High School in Rochester. She was an American Field Service exchange student to West Germany in 1954. An art major at Northwestern from 1955-57, she didn't complete her degree until her sons were raised. She Attended Keuka Colege in 1981, RIT in 1985-87, receiving an MFA in painting.

   “I’ve spent a lifetime of learning about painting/art/life. This show is all my work but each painting shows the influence of the people who taught me. It is important to me that I remember and honor them. There have been many more, but I have chosen those who have been primary in my life,” said Mary.

The teachers she honors in her show include:

Lois Tuttle, Monroe High School Art Teacher

Mr. Seidel, Northwestern University

Dexter Benedict, Keuka College

Gary Jurista, Keuka College

John Smolenski, Keuka College

Lavro Polon Keuka College Field Period at Penn Yan Academy

Philip Bornarth, Rochester Institute of Technology

Fred Myers, RIT

Norm Williams, RIT

Ron Padgham, RIT

Dr. Karen Trickey, Nazareth College Art Teachers' Mentors Director

Other teachers:

Dick Kane, adult ed, Webster, NY

Carl Peters, Fairport, NY

Emile Gruppe, Glouster, MA

Charles Gruppe

Paul Strisik, Rockport, MA

Frank Webb, Pittsburgh, PA

Sari Gaby, Rochester Memorial Art Gallery

   She worked with Golden Acrylics on 140 or 300 pound Arches Watercolor Paper, especially with the latest interference pigments on various color undertones.

   We mourn the passing, in March 2004, of Mary Loomis Rickman. We lost her to cancer