The Benicia Plein Air Gallery is featuring the work of Orinda painter Maria SantoStefano during the month of July. Known for her colorful paintings of Benicia and regional scenes, Maria enjoys presenting her work on Benicia’s First Street. “It’s super fun to spend time here, with people and their dogs walking by,” she asserts. “People are so friendly, and happy. And Benicia citizens love their art.”
About the Artist
Born and raised in Illinois, Maria moved to the San Francisco area, where, except for a seven-year stint in Los Angeles, she has remained. She currently lives in Orinda.
“I was always dabbling in art as a kid. I drew and painted portraits and likenesses. I never really thought of being an art major and didn’t know what I would do with an art degree.” She enrolled at University of Illinois, Champaign, taking only a single painting class for non-majors. For the next twenty years, she painted very little.
In 2004, SantoStefano enrolled at the Orinda Community Center hoping to get back into painting. “I got the best instructor I could possibly have, which was Pam Glover’s daughter, Anne Marie Glover.” With Glover’s instruction, SantoStefano sold her first painting – a landscape. “She could just tell you, do this, and do this. And it worked. Consequently, landscape painting really became an addiction and I’ve never gotten tired of it. And that’s all I do; I don’t do any other kind of art.”
Like Maria, Anne Marie was not academically trained. She was mentored by Lundy Siegrist and her mother, from whom she inherited the legacy of California’s impressionist plein air painting tradition. “Pam was a genius. Her work was fresh and immediate. She was an incredible inspiration to me, as was the work of Pam’s fellow members of The Outsiders, specifically Jerry Turner, Randy Sexton, Bill Rushton and Nikki Basch Davis. Anne Marie passed on these traditions to us and encouraged us to do things we probably would never have done on our own. She had an attitude of just do it, get yourself out there and paint. She set up our class to sell our work at a local restaurant. She got us into doing paint outs. My experiences were way beyond what I could have imagined, with incredibly talented painters like Philippe Gandiol also competing at these events. It taught you to paint fast. We did the Epperson paint out, starting around 2009 or so. We also did the Alameda paint out. They were hard, but fun.”
SantoStefano’s style evolved from a realistic, tight depiction of her subject to a loose, more abstract rendering with brilliant colors, jewel tones, bright orange, greens, pinks and turquoise. Idyllic houses and quaint looking cottages set amidst the trees or along the water are her way of adding a human element. “Early on, I never thought I had any originality, and I was concerned that my paintings would appear cartoonish. The first time someone told me they could recognize my work, I was just stunned.”
She prefers the Mabef Field Easel. “I’m very unconventional in that I have a zillion colors that I wheel around. I don’t want to do experiments with a limited palette. Having all the colors reminds me of what’s available, what’s out in the world. Of course, I do mix colors,” she laughs. “My appreciation for the color of the sunny California landscape has helped me loosen up over the years.” Maria still paints regularly with a small group of students drawn together by having studied with the Glovers, with different members calling the locations each week. As time passed, some members of the group have moved away or passed.
In 2009, Maria joined Allison McCrady’s Annex Gallery in the Theatre Square in Orinda; she was represented by McCrady’s AMFA Gallery from 2010 through 2015 and by Show Place Art in Berkeley from 2011 to 2012. She joined the Valley Art Gallery in Walnut Creek in 2009 and the Benicia Plein Air Gallery in 2019.
In addition to Anne Marie Glover, SantoStefano studied plein air with Pam Glover, Theresa Onoda, John Finger, and Suzanne D’Arcy. She considers them all to be important teachers. “I’m especially proud to have studied with Anne Marie and Pam, and to be connected with other painters from the Glovers’ classes that are carrying on a legacy, a tradition.”
More about
Maria SantoStefano
Maria will be at the gallery to greet visitors on July 5th, 19th, and 26th. To see more of Maria’s artwork and to learn more about the Benicia Plein Air Gallery, visit https://santostefano.weebly.com/, @mxanto1/ on Instagram, and www.BeniciaPleinAir.com. Gallery hours are Friday through Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 5 p.m.
