About Mary Sparrow Albert

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Mary Sparrow Albert was born a British subject in 1925 in the town of Ship Harbour on the Avalon Penninsula in Newfoundland. She immigrated to the United States in 1928, eventually settling in New York City. She attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help grade school and St. Francis Xavier Academy high school, and she obtained a full merit scholarship to attend St. Joseph's College. She majored in mathematics, but also enjoyed literature, art and music. Mary especially enjoyed singing, delighting listeners with her pure soprano voice.

 

After working as a school teacher, she married Harold G. Albert in 1951 and raised 4 children, continuing to teach part time. While the children were young, she often drew while tethered to the telephone, filling notebooks with sketches of female figures in fashionable clothing.

 

Her watercolor interests took off in the 1970's in Baltimore, where she studied with Frederic Schuler Briggs. During this time she also served as a docent at the Walters Art Gallery, studying the brushwork of classic artists. Mary continued to paint in Hamilton, NY, where she lived from 1982 to 2011, studying with W. Ralph Murray and Robin Jaycox. She also painted during trips to Bradenton, FL and San Miguel D'Allede, Mexico.

 

Among her many community service activities, Mary co-founded the interchurch Worn Again Thrift Shop in Hamilton, NY.

Mary continued to paint in Branford, CT, where she passed away in 2013. She is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY.

 

Her family maintains and reproduces her art. Feel free to contact us at MSA.watercolor@gmail.com