Mary Minifie began painting when she was eight years old, and her lifelong fascination with faces began in early childhood. As a teenager, she practiced her craft by creating pastel portraits from newspaper clippings. After earning a Liberal Arts degree, she pursued formal art education at Boston University’s School of Fine Arts, but her quest for advanced portraiture training only found fulfillment later.

Upon returning to the US after a decade of living abroad, she finally discovered Paul Ingbretson and immersed herself in the Boston School tradition, spending many years learning to see and paint in the classically real Boston School manner.

Minifie always wanted to paint the beauty of what she saw. Her lifelong pursuit of beauty involves rigorous study of form, color, and light, as well as composition. She finds particular excitement in creating larger shapes out of similar values, discovering abstract patterns that remain true to the real forms and objects. This approach, known as the Arabesque in the Boston School, transcends mere representation. The marriage of the reality of form with abstract visual interplay give Minifie’s paintings depth and excitement.