Through my practice, I share the ideas and processes that shape the work, revealing the worlds and layered imagery within each piece. Observation, narrative, and imagination intersect, inviting closer looking, sparking conversation, and encouraging you to linger, reflect, and imagine your own connection to the work.

Writing

Sixteen watercolour and ink paintings of beetles, moths and spiders from Maria Pelton’s Wanted series, arranged in a four-by-four grid on a wooden surface.

Wanted

The Escapees Some of the creatures in my paintings have escaped. I imagine them slipping quietly beyond the edges of the canvas, disappearing into cracks, travelling through unfamiliar places, moving...

Wanted

The Escapees Some of the creatures in my paintings have escaped. I imagine them slipping quietly beyond the edges of the canvas, disappearing into cracks, travelling through unfamiliar places, moving...

New York Blue by Maria Pelton, an acrylic cityscape with the Empire State Building surrounded by vivid blue skyscrapers.

City States

Cities of the Imagination Since childhood, certain cities have held a special place in my imagination. New York existed almost as a fantasy island, while London inspired a different but...

City States

Cities of the Imagination Since childhood, certain cities have held a special place in my imagination. New York existed almost as a fantasy island, while London inspired a different but...

Monochrome ink portrait by Maria Pelton from Victorian Visions, with a woman’s face emerging through layered dark and pale washes.

Victorian Visions

Dreaming Backwards Victorian Visions emerges from a fascination with looking backwards as a way of seeing differently. The series is rooted in the visual language of Victorian photography.  A time...

Victorian Visions

Dreaming Backwards Victorian Visions emerges from a fascination with looking backwards as a way of seeing differently. The series is rooted in the visual language of Victorian photography.  A time...

Maria Pelton’s studio table with a Glee Gleed tote bag, Fragment Study 4 china plate, Combination Future T-shirt, paints and collected objects.

On Collecting, and the Life of Things

Fragments of Other WorldsStep into my studio, and you encounter fragments of other worlds, quietly gathered and carefully arranged in their own spaces. Drawers of postcards, photographs, shelves of feathers,...

On Collecting, and the Life of Things

Fragments of Other WorldsStep into my studio, and you encounter fragments of other worlds, quietly gathered and carefully arranged in their own spaces. Drawers of postcards, photographs, shelves of feathers,...

Fragment Study 2 by Maria Pelton, a blue coloured pencil drawing of part of a male face, showing an eye, nose and mouth fading into white paper.

Fragment Studies

Fragment Studies Breaking the Image Apart Fragment Studies moves toward reduction, focus, and restraint. After working through layered worlds and activated surfaces, this series pares the image back to essential...

Fragment Studies

Fragment Studies Breaking the Image Apart Fragment Studies moves toward reduction, focus, and restraint. After working through layered worlds and activated surfaces, this series pares the image back to essential...

Purple ink drawing of a reclining female figure over a dictionary page by Maria Pelton, from the Drawing on Language series.

Drawing on Language

Drawing on Language: Curiosity, Mischief, and the Body A Curious Act of Interruption These drawings began with an instinctive pull toward the dictionary page, a surface traditionally associated with authority,...

Drawing on Language

Drawing on Language: Curiosity, Mischief, and the Body A Curious Act of Interruption These drawings began with an instinctive pull toward the dictionary page, a surface traditionally associated with authority,...