ON BEING A PAINTER
a way to remember my life
Ava Marie attended the University of Arkansas and received her BFA in Painting and a Minor in Art History.
Her work aims to find adventure through painting, the outdoors, womanhood, memories, and curiosity within her intimate relationships.
She was raised in rural Arkansas, finding beauty through the hills, in the garbage- the junk-filled yards, painting plein air in these settings.
After years of painting plein air with primarily male mentors, Ava left the creeks and rivers to begin looking inward at her personal relationship to making and learning from various mentors at the University of Arkansas.
She completed a residency at the Civita Castellana School of Painting in Italy in 2017
During college, she attended the Mount Gretna School of Art in Pennsylvania in 2023.
In 2017, Ava was awarded first place in the duck stamp artist contest for Arkansas.
In the spring of 2020 she had an exhibition with over 50 pieces in the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion. She has shown in local shows across NWA and Mountain Home, AR.
Marie is now a part-time plein air instructor at Mount Sequoyah where she has two studios for painting/ceramics and wood making.
HISTORY.
Ava Obert was born in Lebanon, Missouri. Her childhood and adolescence was spent in Mountain Home, Arkansas. She will receive a BFA in Painting and Minor in Art History from the University of Arkansas in 2025.
Media
Ava primarily works with material observed in the outdoors and memories from her life as well as stories her family has passed down in the form of creative writing. Her work embraces several genres but repeatedly returns to nature and the female figure. Most of her work is imagined or completely from direct observation.