Born in Biltmore Forest in Asheville, North Carolina and having lived and kept a house in Spain for many years, Mary Louise finally settled down in Palm Beach, Florida, where she raised her children with husband James O'Sullivan and kept an active work studio, producing works over several years that were featured throughout the island's galleries and in private homes. After the children left the nest, Mary Louise wanted to find a home closer to the flora and fauna she had been photographing and painting for so long. Through insightful advice from old Vassar friends, she found just the right spot in Palm City, Florida, where she currently resides today.

Her original oil paintings on Belgian linen are collected by numerous museums and corporate collections throughout the country and have been published in many books such as “Birds In Art”, “The Best of Wildlife Art”, and “ The Artist And The American Landscape”. She has participated in prestigious, national exhibitions including “Birds In Art” in Wausau, Wisconsin, the “American Society Of Marine Artists”, 13th Annual, in Vero Beach, Florida, the 15th Annual exhibition of American Society of Marine Artists traveling Museum Show and has been selected to participate in the 2014 "Artists of the Natural World" Invitational Art Show of world-renowned painters & sculptors at MacArthur Beach State Park, Florida.

“I love to paint water birds in different lighting conditions. In fact, I started by loving to paint water since we lived on a boat for 12 years. I began by painting boats and buildings reflected, moved on to water lilies and then kind of late in the game discovered that Florida was full of lakes and ponds with wonderful wading birds. I guess I would say the common thread that runs through all of my seemingly different subject matter is that it pretty much has to be in or very near the water.

As for my boat paintings, I concentrate on character and texture. I won the Trompe L’Oeuil prize in art school (Boston Museum School) and love to convey the feeling of the wood grain and the early light catching the edges of peeling paint. Spare me slick varnish, shiny new white paint, and above all the amorphous fiberglass. Boats should have ribs like birds have feathers and joints. Everything, even old and decrepit, becomes more beautiful when reflected in water.”

Chatham Hall, Chatham, Virginia
Vassar College
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain

Artists for Conservation
American Society of Marine Artists
Society of Animal Artists