Watercolor painting setup with palettes, brushes

A Journey in Life and Art

At 83, Mary Ann Bucci is a prolific watercolorist who didn’t start painting until her last child went to college. Even though she’s a self-taught artist, Mary Ann said God has been so good for giving her a unique gift. She does a lot of local interest paintings, but when people visit her site, they often want prints of her artworks.

Art Achievements

Although best known for her small watercolor paintings, Mary Ann has also produced several watercolors over four feet tall and oil paintings over eight feet. Two of these, “Weller Theatre”, which hangs at the Zanesville Welcome Center, and “The Canal Gatekeeper’s House,” were part of the Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Show and the Zanesville Bicentennial Art Show. Mary Ann has also become famous for her “hometown memory” paintings, which express emotions or feelings, like the basket paintings that she completed as special incentive awards for Longaberger consultants around the country; the “historical watercolors”, so called because they include a written story about her family’s history; and the “Faces of Grief” a four-part painting series that Mary Ann produced following the death of her daughter.

Art Memberships

* Zanesville Appalachian Arts Project * Ohio Watercolor Society * Southeastern Ohio Watercolor Society * Zanesville Art Center board, * Putnam Underground Railroad Education Center board

Beyond Art

In addition to art awards, Mary Ann has received the Woman of Distinction Award, the Ray Thomas Community Award, and the Martin Luther King Community Award. She and her family also oversee the Ronna Bucci/Dr. Dietz Art Scholarship awards and engage in several charitable activities in their small, economically disadvantaged community. Mary Ann would often paint many familiar things, like churches, and turn them into prints to sell and raise money for a church or a school.
A collection of various watercolor paintings

Current Life

Mary Ann’s artistic metamorphosis has evolved slowly, beginning with a great love of art in childhood, progressing through the volunteer stage of posters, signs, banners, and teaching art as an active young mother, to her present work as a full-time artist, completing several paintings a week, many of which are donated to charities, schools, and churches. While remaining very prolific. Mary Ann does not spend much time on her completed artworks, except when getting them framed and shipping them. She is still interested in many things that she wants to share with her family, especially her grandchildren. With the support and encouragement of family and friends, Mary Ann can still paint her world for the pure enjoyment of recording a familiar moment in time.