About Mary Anne Carley

Mary Anne Groves Carley was born in New York City. She is the daughter of the former Mabel Martha Groves and George S. Groves. She is the sister of Mabel (Bunny) Southam of Key Biscayne, Florida and the sister of the former George S. Groves, Jr. from Armonk, New York and the sister of the former David E. Groves from Shenorock, New York.
She grew up in Armonk and attended Armonk Public Schools until the family moved to Montclair, New Jersey when she was in the fifth grade. There she attended Watchung School through the sixth grade and then went to Saint Mary’s Hall (now Doane Academy) in Burlington, New Jersey through the eighth grade, then on to high school for more artistic training.

Her art education formally began in the 7th grade at St. Mary’s Hall in Burlington, New Jersey and continued on during her high school years at the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York. She studied Fine Arts at Skidmore College, graduated with a BS Degree from the Hartford School of Art and received a MS Degree from Central Connecticut College in Art and Education. She also taught art for many years at the Litchfield Junior High School in Litchfield, Connecticut.
During her time teaching art she began painting and exhibiting extensively in all medias.

Mary Anne married the late Richard L.Carley from, Sharon,Connecticut before finishing college and moved to Sharon.She had three children within five years, Richard- L.Carley,Jr now lives in Walworth, New York,Theresa A. Kenny,lives in Sharon CT and Patrick J. Carley, lives in Sanford, Florida.
She has five grandchildren, Christina Kenny, from Pottstown, PA, Meghan Kenny, from Sharon, CT, Michael Kenny, from Bridgeport, Connecticut, Jessica Ramos from Ontario, NY and Richard L. Carley III, from Walworth, New York.
She also has great grandchildren. From the Kenny-Plouffe family is Jack and Parker. From the Ramos-Carley family is Owen, Carley and Maya.

Mary Anne has shown in a Connecticut Watercolor Society juried show at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, also has shown for many years at the Annual Trinity Art Show, in Lime Rock, Connecticut.
Her art is also online in several of the Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts permanent juried collections. She has shown in the Tang Gallery at Skidmore College, the Roxbury Connecticut Congregational Church Juried Shows, in Lady Audrey’s Gallery, Millerton, New York with Two Awards of Merit, in 2009, 2010 and the Best in Show-Dog Day Afternoon in 2011. Additional places she has exhibited are at the Hotchkiss Library, Sharon, the Sharon Historical Society, Sharon and in the Housatonic Valley Art League Juried Shows, 2010 to present.

Mary Annes recent awards include First Prize Mixed Media My Roses Escape to the Arts, Juried Show, Danbury, CT April 2014, Honorable Mention for Watercolor, Roses, Richter Art Association, Danbury, CT, October 2014 Annual Juried Show and Honorable Mention for Watercolor, Melting, Trinity Gallery Juried Show, Lime Rock, CT, February 2015. She also received an honorable mention from the Roxbury Connecticut Juried Show, June 2015 for her Bouquet watercolor.

Mary Anne’s focus is to capture the mood, movement and color of what she is seeing. Some of the paintings are first drawn with watercolor pens; the shapes are then painted in with glitter watercolor paint, right up to the lines, “just like coloring in coloring book pages,” she explains. She loves to watch the lines run when the paint touches them. Sometimes Mary Anne takes her work home to dry, and then she draws over the top of the painting with permanent ink to further define the shapes. And sometimes she draws on one piece of paper, paints on another and combines the two pieces into one work.