Mary Jane Erard, a self-taught artist, has worked in many different artistic media since she was a young child. For many years she has worked exclusively in pastel, as she finds that pastel lends itself perfectly to creating the impressionistic landscape paintings for which she is known.

In the past ten years Mary Jane's pastel paintings have been accepted in over 50 juried art shows and have won over thirty awards, including five Best of Show awards. Her work has also been included in thirteen group shows and nine solo shows.

In 2005 Mary Jane entered six juried shows and won five awards, including one Best of Show and two First Place Awards. She won Best of Show in the prestigious Members Show at the Spectrum Gallery and won First Place at the 2005 Toledo Botanical Garden's Crosby Festival. Mary Jane's painting "To All the Trees I've Hugged Before" was accepted into the 37th Annual National Juried Art Exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Club in November 2005. She also exhibited 6 paintings and 5 prints in an international exhibition held in Hamburg Germany in December 2005.

In 2006 Mary Jane has exhibited in two group shows in prestigious galleries; The Parkwood Gallery and Space 237 in Toledo. She was also accepted into the Ann Arbor Art Festival and was invited to exhibit again in 2007. In addition, Mary Jane was invited to jury the entries for the 2006 Crosby Festival of the Arts. Also in 2006, she was featured in an article in the University of Toledo's UT Times. Several of Mary Jane's paintings were published at various times in 2006 in the UT Times, Toledo City Paper and the Toledo Blade.

Mary Jane has also been accepted several times into the Annual Toledo Area Artists Exhibition held at the Toledo Museum of Art. The exhibition is one of the oldest juried shows in the country and is the most prestigious held in the Toledo area. She has also won several awards in Salon des Refuses' shows.

Mary Jane's work has been published on the cover of Talk of the Town magazine in January 2000, on the cover of the UT Times in 2002, on the front page of the Columbus Art Web site in 2003, in the Toledo Blade, the Toledo City Paper, World Wide Art Resources and as a feature article in the UT Times in 2006.

In 2007 Mary Jane won 1st place in the University of Toledo's Art on the Mall and 2nd place at the Crosby Festiva.

This year (2008) Mary Jane has exhibited in Art Chicago at the Merchandize Mart and has had a solo exhibition in the Blue Heron Gallery located in the Historic Oliver House in downtown Toledo.  She exhibited in the Crosby Festival and won third place for graphics.  Mary Jane will also exhibit in the Ann Arbor Festival, Levis Commons Art Fair and in the One of a Kind Exhibition in Chicago.

Mary Jane is a Juried Associate Member of the prestigious Pastel Society of America, a juried member of World Wide Arts Resource as a Premier Artist, a member of the Great Lakes Pastel Society, and a member of Spectrum: Friends of Fine Art. Mary Jane has served as a member of the Spectrum: Friends of Fine Art Board of Trustees as their President, Vice President and Member at Large.

Mary Jane frequently has work on display and for sale at the Collector's Corner at the Toledo Museum of Art. She is also represented by the Mac Worthington Gallery in Columbus, the Fortunes' Rock Gallery in Alabama, and she also has a private gallery in the South Wing of the Historic Oliver House located in downtown Toledo.  To view her work in her private gallery, please contact Mary Jane at janeerard@mindspring.com .