Today we’d like to introduce you to Mary Ostazeski-Johnson.
Hi Mary, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was always captivated by color and lines through nature and especially fascinated by reflections in water. As a child I spent hours and hours drawing anything and everything. As a young teen I drooled looking at the oil painting sets in the Sears Christmas catalog for weeks before Christmas—on Christmas of my 8th grade year I got one! My first oil painting was very primitive and the turpentine/linseed oil made me dizzy but each attempt produced better and better art. As a high schooler a favorite art teacher set up an extra painting class for me to paint to my heart’s content….all together my pieces brought in $2000 at the school’s art auction. My first drawing class in college was a disappointment when the professor discouraged me from drawing representational subjects—I guessed I could not be ‘weird’ enough for him. I left that college and went a different direction, all the time painting recreationally with watercolor. After a year of missionary work in Europe and then earning a second Bachelor’s degree, I started doing a few art/craft fairs in the midwest, my specialty being YOUR HOME IN WATERCOLOR, a commissioned piece of a home/cabin/farm most often as a gift. The interest was immediate and very popular with 100’s of commissions done each year. Subject matter in the 70’s and 80’s was farm/country/villages/old stores but there was always a steady stream of YOUR HOME IN WATERCOLOR business. Traveling to ND, WI, SD and Illinois to do art fairs was infectious and tedious……especially after I started to print some of my scenes. In the 90’s I painted landmarks around MPLS (Lake Harriet/Lake Calhoun) and the North Shore (Split Rock Lighthouse). When we moved to Eden Prairie I started painting Lake Minnetonka History (Excelsior Amusement Park/old Hotels and steamships) and eventually had over 25 Lake Minnetonka Historical originals and prints. Researching the history was equally fascinating and I often included history write-ups with my art. Of course the reception of this line of art was outstanding for many years especially in the western suburbs. The economics of 2008 seemed to affect the art fair market. I sold through some stores (Excelsior Bay Boutique/The Quilted Bear) and a few of my pieces were used in Lake Minnetonka Historical books as well as a line of postcards. Lehmann Farms products used a farm image I invented for their label. But still every year there was steady requests for home commissions with realtor closing gifts becoming very popular as well as some builder requests to watercolor from plans to help some clients envision a finished property. After losing 5 canopies to storms and the tedium of art fairing I slowed down, taught a few community ed classes and private students, I decided to mostly keep specializing in YOUR HOME IN WATERCOLOR. The pandemic was tough on the market but I wanted to do a little more. By then our kids had married and were giving us grandkids. I did not want to paint from sun up to sun down as I had in my younger days. Nowadays I am enjoying a nearly weekly email from someone who has found an old painting of mine in their parents stuff—–I see my name and date on the painting but do not remember painting that particular watercolor. I have bought back some of my art from garage sales and Goodwill. I lost count on how many watercolors I have sold but well over 9,000 homes/cabins/farms plus a few thousand generic ‘farmy’ scenes for the art fairs. What is the appeal these days?—-I paint a home almost every day while I listen to books or podcasts. My style has become brighter and tighter due to so many architectural subjects, fine brushes, good paint and my still steady left hand!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There are always life/work challenges but because I work from home I have had a hard time shutting down for the day. When my kids were young they sat at the table and drew or played with Playdoh while I painted. Because I almost always have a commissioned piece waiting for attention I want to avoid more mundane household responsibilities to paint. In retrospect I should have been charging more and working less……but I wanted to be affordable to middle class customers. The tedium of setting up/hauling/showing paintings outdoors in heat and humidity/storms was notable. July 2006 90 mph straight line winds in Bayfield WI blew 100 exhibits over!(I lost $7000 of inventory and a new canopy) Wanting to market my stuff without sounding too pushy has always been a struggle. If someone sees my art I want my art to sell itself. That being said I really really enjoy talking to people and love to explain that a painting of a childhood home/farm/cabin is a marriage between art and history——I AM IN THE MEMORY BUSINESS! Because I didn’t make too much money from art I have always had a ‘side gig’ doing a little part time job. It would have been nice to make a little more profit from the art.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am known for two things. My Lake Minnetonka Historical Art and I have a fair amount of historical info to go along with each piece(enough that I have spoken to women’s clubs telling stories I’ve heard from sources while showing the piece).
Since 1977 I have done YOUR HOME IN WATERCOLOR and there is a tremendous amount of interest because it is just a good idea! Everyone who sees my work thinks about that childhood home or family cabin or farm and knows that it would be a great gift! —-especially for the hard-to-buy-for person. I am very happy to create a painting that makes a customer ‘tear up’ because of the memories it evokes. I am very patient to have people sit at my dining room table and tell me stories of their special memories. Once I did a large watercolor of Cork Ireland where my customer had just hosted a daughter’s wedding and wanted me to paint in the whole wedding party AND rename or invent stores/businesses with family members names on them…….yes even down to a kid in a tuxedo with a cast on his broken arm………it was fanciful and quirky and I put WAY TOO MANY HOURS into it. The customer was thrilled. After all I am in THE MEMORY BUSINESS! Another time in the early 80’s I painted the same St. Paul home 12 times, one for each kid in the family…….now color technology allows me to print on watercolor paper.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
I have always said that I have a ‘party’ in my head. I have a very rich internal life so painting feeds that. My lesson is that I have landed on the wonderful combination of doing what I love and am pretty good at AND at the same time enjoy the stuff ‘in my head’ which means listening to a book/podcast/music or just enjoying my thoughts or using the time to pray for people who need prayer.
Pricing:
- 3″x5″ prints are $4
- 5″x7″ prints are $9
- 8″x10″ prints are $15-30
- 8″x11″ originals of homes are $150
- 11″x14″ originals of homes are $250
Contact Info:
- Website: www.watercolorsbymary.com and www.yourhomeinwatercolor.com
- Facebook: Mary Ostazeski Johnson
