After teaching painting for many years, Mary Jo recently retired from the North Shore Art League in Winnetka, Illinois to refocus her exploration of her surrounding landscape in oil paint.Her paintings are known for their wide open fields and prairie flora inspired by her Midwest surroundings. Instilled with light and harmonious color, they offer a distinct sense of place and familiarity. O'Gara is constantly seeking freshness and spontaneity in her process, which is evident in the texture and brushwork of her canvases. Her work is typically finished alla prima, completed in one session. One can see the layers of paint and fields of color that have been pulled, scraped, built up and blended , yet the results are never overworked.