547 West 27th Street, Suite 201
New York City, NY
p. (212) 947-6100
Website: CeresGallery.org
My solo exhibition, in Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie had an opening reception last weekend. That reception was attended by Myrna Haskell, Founder and Executive Editor of Sanctuary Magazine. In this month’s edition of Sanctuary, Myrna featured a column titled, Event Hop. She wrote about one of the pieces in the exhibition that drew her eye repeatedly. This is what she wrote:
“I attended the opening reception for Mary Ahern’s solo exhibition at Locust Grove Historic Site titled “Portraits From My Garden.” I hadn’t viewed so many of Mary’s works together in one space before, and it was a delight. The vibrant colors and attention to light and texture drew me in.
I asked Mary about her piece ‘We Are Sisters.’ She shares, ‘All of my works tell a story. This painting is about two sisters, and it demonstrates how one outshines the other. An inspiration was Bette Midler’s song ‘Wind Beneath My Wings.’ Who is the vocal one? Who shies away from attention? You’ll notice that the warmer reds are used in the flower in the foreground, while the other is slightly faded.’
Click here to read the entire article on the free online Sanctuary Magazine, Event Hop
This is a daily journal of my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work in the group show at the Ceres Gallery in June, and my upcoming November solo exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.
This week, I’m getting back in the studio a bit after prepping the artwork for the Locust Grove solo exhibition, bubble wrapping them, loading them into the car, and then driving a 5-hour round trip last week was tiring. But this week, prepping 50 prints in different sizes and 100 note cards for their gift shop, then driving back again to Poughkeepsie, staying overnight, setting up for the Opening Reception on Sunday, talking to people for hours about my work, and then driving back to Long Island, was a different kind of tired. Now that the planning and producing the Locust Grove solo exhibition is behind me, I’m trying to return to my normal life rhythm. I spent a few hours in the studio working on the magnolia painting and letting it travel to what it wants to become. I also found that spending time looking at my garden helped settle me down considerably. I hope to get my groove back soon.
This is a daily journal of my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work in the group show at the Ceres Gallery in June, and my upcoming November exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.
The Locust Grove show opened yesterday. These two oil paintings are at the entrance to the exhibition. On the left is “Pay Attention Here – Orange Hibiscus and on the other wall is, “Worth the Wait – Tree Peony”. Both are oil paintings.
Off my studio is a balcony and looking down from there I can see the magnificent plants now blooming in the garden. From a distance, you don’t get the scale of how large these shrubs are but I think they make an interesting mosaic. The Kalmia latifolia, are the white flowers, Rhododendron rosebay are the pink shrubs, and the purple shrub is Calycanthus x. Aphrodite which I planted over a decade ago. All these flowering shrubs provide privacy from the road.
This is a daily journal of my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026, my work in the group show at the Ceres Gallery in June, and my upcoming November exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.
It turns out that Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie has a gift shop. Since my work is all about gardens and flowers and so are they, I was asked if I had any prints they could put in their gift shop. I still have quite a bit of inventory sitting on shelves since I’m not in the art festival circuit any longer nor am I in the little local gallery/gift shop where many people stopped in to buy small gifts for themselves or others. Today I checked out my note cards and prints and made consignment sheets so the folks at Locust Grove will know what inventory they’ll be starting with. I also staged and photographed the print racks I used when I was on the art festival circuit so they could see what I plan to use to display the work. An entire day spent prepping the prints, note cards and documenting everything. Tomorrow, we drive back upstate to Poughkeepsie to set up the show and Sunday is the reception. Sometimes it feels like it takes less time to make the work than to prep it for viewing. I know that’s not true, but that’s what it feels like since prepping is far less interesting than creating.
This is a daily journal of my creative efforts for my solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026 and my November exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.
This is the day we deliver the art to the Locust Grove Historical Site for my 2 ½ month Solo Exhibition. Finally. We drove from our home up north to Poughkeepsie. The GPS time said it would take a bit over 2 hours, but it actually was a 2-and-a-half-hour drive. Not as bad as I expected I’m happy to say. The hardest part as always, was getting off Long Island. We took the Throgs Neck Bridge and then the Taconic Parkway. Locust Grove was easy to find and seemed to be a well visited location with many people walking the gardens and nature trails. Hubby Dave was again my hero and carried all the work inside. I do the driving, he does the lugging. They will unwrap everything and store all my bubble wrap for mid-September when we pick it all up again. After a tour of the gardens and the show location, we headed back home. Happily, we made it well before dark, tired but glad to be home safe and sound.
This is a daily journal of my creative efforts as I prepare for my Solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026 and my November exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.
Today we loaded the car for the drive tomorrow to Poughkeepsie. I have 17 artworks ranging in size from 3 ft by 3 ft to the smallest at 16” x 16”. It’ is hard to plan a show from a distance so I’m hoping I’m bringing the right amount and the right sizes for their space. I’ve done all the measuring, layouts, side by side comparisons, color, and subject planning that I could think of. Now I have to just bite the bullet and let it go.
The studio looks so bare with so much art leaving the walls. I’ll have to think about rehanging work since the work in this show at Locust Manor will be there until the middle of September. I’ll actually miss so much of the work while it’s gone. That’s the strange part about being an artist. You create miracles from a potion of fabric and pigment and then you miss them when they’re gone. It’s a little bit like when your kids move out. You’re happy they’re having new life experiences, but you nevertheless miss them when they leave.
This is a daily journal of my creative efforts as I prepare for my Solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026 and my November exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.
Spent the day taking artwork out of storage and off the walls, checking for dust and then bubble wrapping them. I get my bubble wrap bags at Uline and my large rubber bands on Amazon. It makes packing much easier than using rolls of bubble wrap. I staged everything outside my studio in the hallway until it got to crowded and then made piles elsewhere. To recover from the stress, I did what I always do, I went for a walk in my garden. The Kalmia latifolia, AKA Mountain Laurels are at peak bloom this week. They are native to my area and have flourished since I set up an irritgation system in the garden. They had been suffering from drought. Once I spent some time walking around, looking and capturing images I felt renewed again. The stress of the day left me and I recovered my center.
This is a daily journal of my creative efforts as I prepare for my Solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026 and my November exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.
I took a completely new direction in my magnolia painting. I decided to break the edges and merge the background and foreground, rather than delineating hard edge barriers. I also lightened the lower background colors and the large petal areas. It’s a major change that I think will finally bring this painting to life for me.
For hours I worked on creating the labels for each of the artworks I’m delivering to my Poughkeepsie show on Sunday. There is a lot of documentation needed in order for the curator at Locust Manor to have all the correct information for each piece. The title, size, medium, and price. It has to match the price lists correctly that I made yesterday. Details matter.
To relax, I spent time looking at the Hymenocallis festalis, AKA Peruvian Daffodil blooming in one of my deck containers. It’s a tropical bulb that I’m able to find each year in the early spring in Costco of all places. I have to rummage through their racks in order to find these exquisite bulbs but well worth the trouble. All the stress melted away from my body and mind when I spent time looking closely at the intricate architecture of these amazing blooms.
This is a daily journal of my creative efforts as I prepare for my Solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026 and my November exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.
Took a break from getting ready for delivering the art to the Locust Grove site in Poughkeepsie this weekend and went to the wholesale nursery to see what’s new. The Itoh peonies were in bloom and I managed not to buy one. I’m so proud of myself for not succumbing to its gorgeous seduction. I can see why the pollinators can’t resist. Being around all these flowers is so calming for me. They are such ephemeral miracles. After my excursion, I worked on paperwork all afternoon for the show. Getting all the little details right takes so much concentration. Glad I’m an organized person in general or this would have taken 15 times as long. Created a price list which can be printed for handout at the show or distributed as a pdf file. Double and triple checked the details & sent it off to the curator. Moments later, of course, I found an error. Isn’t that always the way!
This is a daily journal of my creative efforts as I prepare for my Solo exhibition at Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY, from June 5 – September 15, 2026 and my November exhibition in Chelsea, New York City.
Award-Winning Northport Artist, Mary Ahern, has been selected for a Solo Exhibition at the Locust Grove Historic Site in Poughkeepsie, NY
2683 South Road
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
p. 845-454-4500
Website: lgny.org
Mary Ahern, the renowned Northport artist, has been invited to display her award-winning Flower Portraits at the historic Locust Manor Historic Site in Poughkeepsie, NY, for a two-and-a-half-month solo exhibition. With degrees in both Fine Art and Horticulture, Mary has discovered that cultivation and creation are inseparable — her garden serving as both muse and teacher, its cycles of growth, senescence, and rebirth informing everything that emerges in her studio. Working in bold scale and vivid detail, she layers pigments to capture not just what flowers look like, but what they feel like, blending abstraction and realism into luminous paintings that pulse with life and color. Her Flower Portraits are celebrations of beauty and resilience, love letters to the natural world that invite viewers to look beyond surface appearances and discover their own connection to the living world around them.
After attending a lecture at the New York Botanical Garden, my friend Chris and I went to the conservatory to see the amazing Orchid Show. This is the best orchid exhibition in years. It was designed by the floral designer Mr. Flower Fantastic and features his work, which he displays throughout New York City.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
At The Huntington in Los Angeles, we were fortunate to have time to view the art. Imagine my surprise when I walked into one room, and found there were two Turners on display. What a treat for me. I was able to spend as much time as I wanted since there were not too many people there at the same time. When I’ve seen his work at other museums in New York, London, and Paris, the galleries are so crowded that you are not comfortable looking closely at his brushstrokes and use of paint. Not all of his subject matter appeals to me, but all of his paint handling does. I love the atmospheric qualities he creates, the layering of thin paints over and over each other. Looking closely, I can see the pentimenti of decisions he’s made over time. I learn more each time I study Turner’s work closely. Fifty years of painting and still learning.
The Grand Canal: Scene – A Street in Venice, c. 1837
Joseph Mallord William Turner
(British, 1774-1851)
Oil on canvas
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
While we were in California, we spent a great deal of time in various museums and botanical gardens. “The Huntington is a world-renowned cultural and educational institution, that provides transformative experiences for a community of the curious”, states their website. “It was founded in 1919 by Henry E. and Arabella Huntington, it supports research and promotes public engagement through its expansive library, art, and botanical collections.” The Chinese and Japanese gardens were outstanding. We were fortunate to have time to also view their art collections. This particular piece grabbed our attention.
Division of Powers:
1. Legislative – 1. House of Representatives. 2. Senate
2. Executive- 1. The President of the US.
3. Judicial-1. Supreme Court 2. Interior Courts.
Each box clearly defines the structure of the United States democracy.
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
Since the 1970s, I’ve been following the efforts of the Guerrilla Girls fighting for equality in the arts for women. I went to see the Guerrilla Girls exhibition at the Getty Center in LA the other day with Hubby Dave. He said he’d had a vague awareness of the group without being able to put them in a historical context. He knew they were addressing the issues of the devaluation of women in the arts in general, in sales, in pricing, in museums and in the acknowledgement of women’s history in the context of our culture. As a feminist himself, he’s very aware of the prejudice that women have and continue to endure. Our visit to this show together triggered great conversations over dinner.
Check out what the Guerrilla Girls found in these Old “Masterpieces”
These daily studio notes lead toward my 2026 solo exhibitions in New York City and Poughkeepsie, NY.
Multi-Media Exhibition
547 West 27th St
Suite 201
New York, NY 10001
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 5, 2026 from 6-8PM
Gallery Hours: Tue-Sat 12 to 6pm
Ceres Gallery is a feminist, not-for-profit alternative space in New York City dedicated to promoting contemporary women in the arts. Founded to expand opportunities for women artists, Ceres provides an inclusive exhibition space that raises public awareness and challenges the limited access women often face in commercial galleries.
November 20 – December 21, 2025
1200 NY-25A, Stony Brook, NY 11790
The Museum is open: Thursday: 11:30 am to 7:00 pm & Friday–Sunday: Noon to 5:00 pm
Reception: Thursday, November 20th from 5:30 – 7:00 p.m
The Long Island Museum and LIMarts are thrilled to present Common Ground, celebrating the vibrant creativity of our region’s artists.
For generations, LIM has served as a gathering place where people of all ages come together to experience the art, history, and culture that define our region. This year’s exhibition centers on the theme of Common Ground, an exploration of shared spaces, community, environment, and cultural connection.
Each artist was invited to reflect on what Common Ground means to them—whether it’s rooted in land, identity, gathering, or personal connection. The exhibition invites visitors to consider how we may share commonalities with one another and discover something new about ourselves along the way. While Long Island itself is our shared foundation, every artist brings their own story and perspective to life here.
LIMarts is a special initiative dedicated to supporting and showcasing the exceptional visual artists who call Long Island home—from Brooklyn to Montauk and beyond. This annual exhibition celebrates the diversity, creativity, and talent that make our community so extraordinary.
This artwork sparks a vital conversation that reflects the interconnectedness and delicate balance within both the microcosm of my garden and the macrocosm of the cosmos. These identifiable floral Images are glazed and intertwined with my abstract underpaintings inspired by the visuals of the universe.
By recognizing the delicate balance required for both terrestrial and celestial ecosystems to thrive, I aim to provide a visual context for understanding the essential balance necessary to sustain life’s intricate harmony across all scales – from the tiniest flower to the grandest galaxy.
Through this layered, evocative imagery, I invite viewers to pause, contemplate, and cultivate a deeper appreciation for the fragile yet resilient web of life that sustains our world and cosmos.
Juried into this dynamic exhibition by Joshua Ruff, Co-Director of the Long Island Museum of Art, is my oil painting, Phantasm – Coral Peony.
“Phantasm – Coral Sunset Peony”, a 36×36″ oil painting, is a vivid celebration of life’s vibrant energy inspired by the peonies that enchant my garden. Imagine a dynamic dance of colors—pink, yellow, and orange petals that swirl with a captivating grace, all harmoniously converging towards a lively green center. The energy in the petals encircling the center of the flower also represents the feeling humans have when they are moved by emotions. This piece is about celebrating movement and color, capturing the very essence of a flower in full bloom. It invites you to step into a world where every brushstroke is infused with the joy and wonder of nature’s beauty. I hope it inspires a moment of reflection and connection to the natural vibrancy all around us.
Phantasm – Coral Sunset. 36×36″ Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas.
This is a very interesting show to see. Very unusual and perfect for the Halloween season.
My work was juried into this “Imagination” exhibition but the other work in this show is very, very different in style. There are many excellent and imaginative works for you to see. Give yourself a treat and go to see this fascinating show.
Mills Pond Gallery, 660 New York 25A, St James, NY. Gallery Open, Wed-Fri, 10-4pm. Sat & Sun, 12-4pm
Market Art + Design returns for the fair’s eighth edition July 5 – 8, 2018 at The Bridgehampton Museum on Montauk Highway in the heart of the Hamptons. Download your VIP Pass now for access to the fair’s Opening Night Preview benefiting the East End’s renown Parrish Art Museum.
Join me at the ArtBlend Booth #403
Hours & Location
The Bridgehampton Museum – 2368 Montauk Highway, Bridgehampton, NY
Thursday July 5, 2018
6:00pm to 10:00pm
Friday, July 6, 2018
11:00pm to 7:00pm
Saturday, July 7, 2018
11:00am to 7:00pm
Sunday, July 8, 2018
12:00pm to 6:00pm
Market Art + Design 2018 will feature the best in art and design presented by 80 top galleries from around the world – making this July’s fair the biggest and most important to date. The 2018 Hamptons summer season will also see the expansion of Market Art + Design’s partnerships with The Wall Street Journal, Hamptons Cottages & Gardens, Artsy, Tesla, Art Money, Aperol, Jadot, and The Parrish Art Museum (the fair’s 2018 Beneficiary Partner), extending the fair’s reach into the Hamptons’s collecting community.
Preview the ArtBlend Show Catalog with my painting “Just Waiting – Free Spirit Rose Bud” which is one of the paintings I will have on display at the show.
Learn more about the Hamptons’ premier modern and contemporary art and design fair at ArtMarketHamptons.com
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