Art by Mary Rochelle Burnham

Letting Go , pastel 9 x 9" SOLD The All about Me Challenge was posted by Carol Marine on Saturday Apr 30, 2011. The details are:  This challenge is just for fun - simply paint a self portrait. Nothing to learn here, except perhaps that a self portrait is frickin' hard! So, make it normal, make it silly, but let us see the real you!  I was captivated by the "let us see the real you". The real me has little to do with how I look and everything to do with who I am. I love blue skies, the warmth of the sun on my face and having a connection with nature. I am in awe of God's creation and I am thankful to be alive. OK, I am well aware of the cliché, pushing up daisies. Soon after the photo was taken that I used for reference of myself, I was diagnosed with cancer. It was one of the scariest passages of my life and one of the most profound. After surgery, I was given a good prognosis and I am just shy of my five year anniversary. A day doesn't go by that I

Memento Mori, pastel, 12 x 9" SOLD One of the skulls that either my husband or I have found and cleaned up over the years. I guess its an artist thing...at least this artist. I have always been fascinated with anatomy. I used to study my father's manuals from when he was a medic in World War II. I believe all the copying of skeletons and muscles helped me to develop tremendously in portraiture. On this particular piece, I was mostly concerned with painting the light and not the minutia of the skull. I was going for drama with the color. It was sad to me that this healthy young buck was shot and ran off to die, undiscovered until he could not be eaten. My husband came across his corpse while taking a leisurely walk in the woods and brought home his head. I find his skull both beautiful and disturbing, just like this story.

Pulse of New York , Color pencil on paper, 7 x 5" SOLD Yet, another Daily Paintworks Challenge! I love doing figures, and I have already done an oil painting on this theme, All A Twitter . Many of you have commented on the use of my color on the DPW site. I love color, it is music for my eyes! New York is pretty drab, but definitely an exciting place. Color is what excites me and is a good metaphor for the sounds, smells and intensity of the city as well as the look in this woman's posture and face. Here is my second version in acrylic: Pulse of New York 2 , Acrylic on panel, 7 x 5" SOLD I haven't worked in acrylic lately, other than demonstrating for my students. Thought I'd give in a whirl! I used a limited palette and like the subtle difference in the color scheme.

Two of a Kind , Oil on panel, 9 x 12" SOLD I was fortunate to be able to take my mother to Bermuda several years ago, prior to her illness that took her from me. I photographed these intensely colored flowers growing on an old stone wall. A apt metaphor for our relationship. I can hear her now, "Mary, I like your flowers...they will look great on my wall!"

Elvis Is In The House , Oil on panel, 5 x 7",  a vailable Last year while visiting some friends, I took photos of their chickens. I figured that one day I'd get around to painting chickens because they look cool and taste great! Well, as you can see, our friend had some rather plain, drab hens and then this magnificent bird. I don't know what breed this is, but he really reminds me of 70's Elvis, in his white jumpsuit, a bit bloated and really strutting his stuff! Those chicks are his adoring fans.

Missed You For Tea , color pencil, 2.5 x 3.5", available  I entered this miniature into The Color of White Challenge, posted by Susan Abbott on Daily Paintworks. It is my second piece. My first sold this past Thursday. Missed You For Tea, although small, was a complicated piece that took approximately four hours to draw.

My Big Red Bike I was twelve years old and other than a tricycle as a toddler, I had never owned a bike. Even worse, I couldn't ride one. I wanted more than anything to enjoy the freedom of riding a bike; going long distances in less time, getting out of the neighborhood, exploring new places. Then, out of nowhere, a friend of the family gave me their daughter's old bicycle. A red bike with fat tires, heavy and clunky and very BIG. Hey, I didn't care that it was 'retro', I figured that this thing was going to crush me the moment I fell off considering that I couldn't balance. I would try and I would be bruised, perhaps more pride than body. Both of my brothers had learned to ride on their friends' bikes and then bought bikes of their own. They didn't teach me. Neither did my parents or friends. Back then, it was something that you learned on your own. If you wanted it bad enough, you did it! OK, but my big bike just seemed too big. I felt humiliati