19
“If I’m really, really honest, I have to say every painting I start with a bit of trepidation...”
Atkinson says. “I’m not sure if it’s going to work out or not. ”
Mary James Atkinson, artist and co-owner of Uptown Market,
props up the photos on her drawing table in her studio. The sunlit
room looks out onto the Intracoastal Waterway and is filled with
frames, canvasses, paints, paintbrushes and dog books.
She first became interested in art when she was 11 years old.
“All of my friends were taking dancing and piano and I was tak-ing
art,” Atkinson says.
Starting up again was simple.
“It was like learning to skate,” she says. “… I found a photo of
a dog I liked and I painted it. … I have to know the dog’s name. I
have to know a little bit about the dog.”
Her technique started off tight but loosened with time. Her
pieces, mostly commissions, are mixed media, integrating acrylic,
pen and ink, oil, watercolor and even splashes of metallic.
“If I’m really, really honest, I have to say every painting I start
with a bit of trepidation. … I’m not sure if it’s going to work out
or not,” Atkinson says. “Have I ever had to start over a painting?
No. I’ve always been able to walk away from it, come back and fix
it, but there’s some I like better than others. That’s just part of it.”
Taking classes at the Cameron Art Museum to bring her back to
the days of the color wheel, Atkinson says she is trying something
new by incorporating landscapes into her backgrounds.
But what takes the longest is making it to the point where she
feels excited about the work and gets lost in what she is doing.
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
Mary James Atkinson
Artist Mary James Atkinson with Gabby.
• g•=