Marie Figge Wise was born in Davenport, Iowa and now splits her time between Texas and Colorado. From a young age, art has been a tremendous influence on Figge Wise’s life, cultivated at first by her family’s connection with Davenport’s Figge Art Museum, and later pursued through her studies at The Art Students League of New York, through the studies of the studio arts and art history in Italy, and most recently at Anderson Ranch. Marie has studied with Joe Anna Arnett, Sherrie McGraw, Gregg Kreutz, Nancy Bush, JoeAnna Arnette and Michael Workman.
Figge Wise was trained in painting still lifes, and ventured outside to paint in the plein air tradition. It was outdoors where she discovered her love of painting landscapes, as well as her deep passion for fly fishing. " I paint a landscape that has an emotional effect on me as I hope it will evoke an emotional response from the viewer," reflects Figge Wise. "As music creates a mood for the listener I hope my paintings will create this for the viewer." The huge vistas of farmlands near her hometown in the Midwest have inspired her work nearly as much the landscapes and rivers of Colorado, Montana, and Texas explored by this avid angler. Most recently Figge Wise has explored mixed media works including monotypes, gum arabic transfers, etching and Chine Collé.
The diffused, tonal quality in much of Figge Wise’s work makes her style recognizable. She often travels to paint and is constantly capturing references of the world around her to translate to canvas, often en plein air.
Marie Figge Wise lives with her husband, Bill Wise, sharing their time between Houston and Fredericksburg, Texas, and Aspen, Colorado.
“The Ann Korologos Gallery gives nuance to the idea of ‘Western art’, tapping into the American West and frontier culture as an inspiration for their collections. Focused on American artists working across various media from painting and photography to sculpture and print-making, Ann Korologos Gallery is an unmissable, distinctively Coloradan bulwark of the Rocky Mountains’ arts scene. Located outside of Aspen in the small town of Basalt, numerous artists featured at the gallery channel the town’s idyllic surroundings into their artistic vision, with particular reference to the town’s reputation as a mountain fishing Mecca.”