Local artist shows off her work

Marie Britting is a local artist who has been painting a variety of images that include still life and plein air landscapes. Her work is currently being featured at the Three Sisters Gallery. During the Covid shutdowns and especially during the cold, snowy winter, Britting spent a majority of her time painting still lifes at her home studio. Britting said about her still life art, "I came to really love it."

Britting expanded on her painting through the inspiration of other artists such as David Leffell, Sheri McGraw and Richard Schmidt. Britting said that these artists are some of the best at still-life paintings. Britting also has painted floral still lifes in addition to landscapes. 

For landscape paintings, Britting has traveled throughout the greater Big Horn region and also places within the county to use as subjects. Britting loves the atmosphere and the animals she finds in the countryside while creating her images. 

Britting grew up in western New York in Buffalo, which is in the countryside. Later, she moved to San Francisco and lived there for 25 years as a nurse. Her entire nursing career was for 50 years until she retired. Britting worked at San Francisco General in the ICU trauma unit for 15 years. Later on, Britting's partner chose to retire in Wyoming, as that was where her partner's sister lived. Britting continued to work as a nurse in Worland and also spent time as a traveling nurse in California during the winter seasons. 

When the Covid situation happened, Britting began to reevaluate her nursing career and decided to retire. Up until then, she was always painting as a hobby, but now she turned her full attention to her craft. Britting took classes and workshops as she increased in her skills and experience. 

Britting settled in Thermopolis about 15 years ago. When asked what Britting likes about Thermopolis, she shared, "This morning I woke up and fed the stray cats. There was deer in my driveway eating the crab apples that had fallen. There was a squirrel hanging from the tree trying to get some of the birdseed. I mean, I thought that was the coolest thing. You don't have to go to nature. It's in your yard. It's in your driveway. And I like that it's slower, you know, and there's no hassle. I mean, I can go out any day, put my stuff in my painting car, and go out into the canyon. I can just paint all day. It used to be that I would try that in some places in San Francisco and people would drive by and throw things at you."

Regarding the beauty of Wyoming, Britting said, "It's just the nature, the natural environment, the slower pace. It almost seems like the 1950s or something that it moved back in time. Like you can be absolutely comfortable here not being hip on the latest thing and not feel like, oh, you're out of it, you know. It's almost like when you get out into the bigger metropolises, it's like there's a push. It's a constant push. You better stay on top. You better be cool. And here it's like I didn't care. You just do your thing."

Britting's vision for her future is to keep painting. She said, "I'm happy to just stay here and look forward to improving every painting."