VWS Quarterly Newsletter

There's no grass under signature member Maurie Harrington's feet. She's a wife, a mother of two grown sons and a grandmother of twins. Maurie is a painter, a teacher, a writer and a traveler extraodinaire. Maurie hales from Connecticut and received her education from the Hartford Art School, now the University of Hartford. She received her BFA while raising her family and then went on to earn an MA from Norwich University.

Maurie now lives in Killington, VT and is one of the founders of the Killington Art Guild now 10 years old. She travels between two studios - one at her home and the other in North Hero in the summer where she's involved in an artist's cooperative. Maurie teaches every week in her North Hero studio, and is Art Director for the Fisk Farm in Isle La Motte. She's preparing for a solo show there the first two weeks in August 2010.

In the early days of Maurie's career, she says, "Oil painting was my medium of choice, but soon I discovered the happy accidents of watercolors." While living in Connecticut, Maurie had a studio at the Farrington Valley Art Center. She taught at the West Hartford Art League instructing with some her college professors. She also taught art therapy at retirement and convalescent homes in the Connecticut area.
brimstone brook

Fifteen years ago, she and her family moved to their Killington ski house. "I combined my love of art with my passion for travel. I began taking classes with well-known artists including:
Charles Reid, Lawrence Goldsmith, Judi Wagner, and Frank Webb. For many years Maurie went on group trips to England, Majorca, India, Croatia, Iceland, Spain, South Africa, Indonesia, New Guinea, Italy, France, Sweden, China and Japan. She has about 50 sketch books to prove it which she hopes one day to compile into a book. They are all waiting patiently on the shelf at home she says.

Maurie gives lectures about her art and travels to local groups and uses her many pen and ink sketches to illustrate and tell her stories. And there are some interesting ones too. While sketching the chief of the Dani tribe in New Guinea with all his feathers and bones etc., she attracted the attention of other tribe members, all wanting their portraits done as well. "Portraits were not my favorite subject, as I found them a real challenge," says Maurie. She was coaxed into just this one. At the end of the day she had completed several and exchanged all the paintings for beads and necklaces. Maurie has left at least one painting in every country she's visited over the years.

Maurie says she always wanted to paint "big" so she started painting murals. Her first mural was a 10' x 20' 1950's theme in a NY state diner. Working from just a small sketch she was at first overwhelmed, but dove in completing one of her favorite pieces.

She has illustrated a couple of books as well, her first entitled, If I were... by Marguerite Locks-Dye. This self-published book has sold over 3000 copies. Maurie later painted her illustrations from that book onto the walls of the Pico Nursery in Mendon. The Vermont Inn has many of Maurie's paintings; prints of a large original hang in all the Grand Hotel Suites in Killington.

Recently Maurie did the cover plus the illustrations for The Gathering of Poets. Oh yes, she has two of her own poems in this book as well."I love interacting with other artists in all mediums, she says, and " I like the challenge of trying new things, experiencing new adventures and I especially love working with others."

Presently, Maurie will be teaching at the Chaffee Art Center in Rutland in February. She's been a member of VWS since 1998. Maurie would welcome people to her home studio by appointment. You can email her at:maurieh@aol.com.