American painter, M Kathryn Massey (b. 1953 - ) is a Signature Member of the Oil Painters of America and Audubon Artists by juried review. She holds or has held membership with American Academy of Women Artists, American Artists Professional League, Allied Artists of America and the Hoosier Salon among others. She currently lives in Northern California on the Pacific coast.

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Ms Massey began to paint in 1994 at age 41. Influenced chiefly by the Dutch and Flemish Masters, she also ascribes to the sensibilities of the 19th and 20th c. Italian and French painters. While these periods most directly inform her painting, she is responsive to Hovsep Pushman, symbolist, Odilon Redon, Chardin, Michelangelo, Rodin, Bernini, and Giacometti. Mary is further influenced by American painters Eakins, Hopper, and Inness. Her ideas are influenced by the scrolls, paintings and decorative arts of Asian Cultures (all periods).

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A brief listing of publications include: a featured article in American Artist Magazine (March '06) by founding editor Stephen Doherty; Art of the West, May '05; "Pastel Journal" February '04; the Best of Pastels, '06. She is included in a new book on painting still life and florals published by International Artist ' 05.By invitation, Mary is among other American painters in Today's Great Masters, release date 2010. Her own book Beyond Paint: A Conceptual Guide for Oil Painters was completed in 2013.

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Beyond Literalism (philosophy)

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“As a painter, I am interested in capturing transcendence in art. I merely serve as an Agent, bringing together ordinary objects with the principles of art to reveal the hidden radiance of everyday things. The sense of transcendence is discovered through the deepest intentions of the painter (also affirmed as the integrity of the painter). The artist’s innermost intentions lead the painter, and subsequently the viewer, to a sense of transcendence that can't be willed by the artist or the viewer. mkm