Growing up in the rural Waikato, Maria has always had a connection with the land and an appreciation of the ever-changing nature of it.

Through her work Maria seeks to capture the natural, uninterrupted and varying state of nature with a particular interest in coastal and rural imagery.

While her paintings fall under the genre of realism, Maria does not strive to simply replicate a photographed image in paint but rather interprets the image in her own style utilising colour and light to enhance a scene.

Often these scenes celebrate the landscape in its natural state devoid of human interference. While the subject matter can sometimes be an iconic scene, Maria also enjoys depicting the beauty in simple everyday landscapes. One may not recognise a particular scene, but the essence of it may be familiar to us.

Many hours can be spent on location observing a scene and capturing photographic references for later use. Of particular interest is scenery that provides unique interest through a combination of weather conditions, tidal effects, reflection or natural patterns such as tidal sand formations. While aspects of the landscape can remain the same/static sometimes for many years, if we stop and observe there are also aspects that are changing by the year, month, day, minute, or even by the second. A finished work is a unique representation of a particular moment in time.

Maria now lives and works from her home studio in rural Karaka.