Enchantment Endangered: Solo Gallery Show at the DiFiore Center

Artist Mary Manning’s enchantment with wild and public lands runs deep. Threats to commercialize and industrialize the West’s lands prompts her to paint reminders of the beauty that will be lost if extraction of minerals, oil and gas go forward on expansive spaces saved for generations to come.

Enchantment Endangered, a series of large multiple paintings capturing light, color and space in paint and gold, silver and copper leaf, expresses Mary’s deepest feelings for the lands she loves: Bears Ears, Gold Butte, the Earth itself.

Since she abandoned more realistic painting styles, Mary began incorporating gold, silver and copper leaf into her work after studying Oriental paintings for their designs to interpret her beloved Western landscapes, producing her latest body of work over 40 years. She has lived in Utah, Nevada and California most of her life, drawing on the breathtaking beauty of wide, open spaces.

“These paintings may remind people what is at stake if we destroy the lands we love and the views that take our breaths away,” Manning said. “Capturing this enchantment continues to draw me to do this work, now more than ever.”

Manning’s solo gallery show is on display during the month of February, exclusively at the Roene B DiFiore Center for Arts and Education, located at 307 N. Main St.

Admission is free and the gallery is open to the public from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, except Sundays.

For more information, call 435-673-4206