MARY G.L. HOOD American, 1886-1967
Hood’s still life conveys her love of color
Still Life with Poinsettias c. 1940 Oil on canvas
vibrant colors and painterly brushwork.
Gift of Sarah Hood Bodine, 2011
tissue paper. Hood’s instructor, Arthur B.
and texture. The plants near the table’s edge converge into abstract spaces of The setup consists of potted poinsettias, a large pinecone, a dinner bell, and a bowl of fruit with sheets of deep blue Carles, often used florist’s tissue paper in the still life arrangements he made for his classes. Mary Hood attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) but curtailed her studies to marry and raise four children. She later returned to PAFA, but left after a year to study art privately with Carles and Henry McCarter. In 1941, the Hood family purchased and moved to Springdale, an eight-acre farm and historic property near New Hope, Pennsylvania. There Hood worked in her studio every afternoon, painting the beautiful flowers of her gardens and the surrounding landscape. Hood and her daughter, Agnes Hood Miller, had a joint exhibition at the Philadelphia Art Alliance in December 1941 and, more recently, at Woodmere Art Museum in 2011.
103