Born in California to a family of artists and writers, Mary Beach studied with Eliot O'Hara while in high school, received her B.F.A. from the University of Colorado and later studied with Millard Sheets and Rex Brandt. She had a rare "Three Generation Exhibit" in San Francisco with her mother and her three children.


Recently, a new series of collages resulted from the artist's discovery of her father's French World War I magazines. As her series continued, she found a new visual expression and an outlet for her lively wit, as well. Variation and versatility are her song, expressing her free and experimental approach to art from watercolors to collage and graphics.


Beach is a volunteer docent at Pt. Lobos State Reserve and Monterey Bay Aquarium, from which she gathers inspiration for her watercolors from the forms of nature. She is also a signature member of the National Watercolor Society, the Women Painters of the West and the Western Serigraph Institute.

She moved to the Monterey Peninsula in 1968 and was elected to membership as painter and graphic artist in the Carmel Art Association the following year. She has often served on the Board of Directors.


Her paintings and graphics hang in numerous private collections throughout the world.