Commissions
From time to time, Vaughan accepts commissions for the love of unique painting projects and individual requests. Commissions have included large-scale paintings, architectural painted panels to enhance doorways and homes, garden pieces, and a speakers lectern for the Willa Cather Foundation as well as The Lark Downtown in Nebraska.
Large Sandhill Cranes/Duncan & Tharp
59 x 100"
Collection of John & Jean Fallick
Lincoln, NE
These large-scale paintings were painted for the Wings over the Platte Exhibit at the Stuhr Museum in 2023 and just happened to fit perfectly in this beautiful game room in Lincoln, Nebraska. They bring playful charm to the space with Mid-Century Modern patterns adding to the decor. Giant portraits of the bird's crimson crowns bring upbeat energy and color into the venue. The paintings are named after famous dancers as part of the crane's mating ritual includes beautiful movements or dancing with one another as spring beckons forth new life.
Nocturne
50 x 48”
Collection of John & Jean Fallick
Lincoln, NE
A night scene painting of wild flowers adorn this kitchen nook, bringing the outdoors in, alongside contemporary design. Blacks with pick-me-up accents within the image make this eating area inviting and comfortable.
Platte River Triptych
60 x 104”
Collection of Kurt & Kathryn Finley
Palo Alto, CA
This large-scale painting was painted for an old high school friend whom the artist grew up with in Nebraska. It captures the vast distance of the Platte River – a shallow, wide tributary on the plains. It was built in three parts for efficient shipping and handling, but also with the idea that it can be shown as one large painting or as three images on their own when moved in ones home from time to time.
Breadth
24 x 36”
Collection of Brad & Mary Augustine
Lincoln, NE
This newly designed sitting room was calling for a landscape of the Platte River Valley. The subtle, nature-based green in this painting adds a cozy feel to the stone fireplace, bringing out the other organic tones in the room. The flow of this waterway image leans toward the lit windows and brings a sense of quietude to the space.
Silver Streak
51 x 81”
Collection of John & Jean ( Boyd ) Fallick
Lincoln, NE
This large painting of the Platte River of eastern Nebraska was painted specifically for friends whose summer home sits on a sand-bottom lake near Omaha. The air and light of this house were inspiration for this calm painting that plays with muted grays and blues so familiar to the region of open skies and distances.
Bird by Bird
50 x 56”
Collection of John & Jean ( Boyd ) Fallick
Lincoln, NE
This playful large painting of two identical pelicans looking inward at one another was painted for the pure joy of waterfowl. It found its perfect nest in the corner of a home that sits next to a lake. The left side of this piece is a blown-up photograph by the Nebraska photographer Amy Sandeen (also Executive Director of Prairie Loft). The right side is a reverse painting by Mary Vaughan. Her idea was to create an unusual design reverse from Nature images, causing the precision of photography to meet the hand-done, physical details of painting in a quirky, unexpected composition. This is one of three large-scale paintings that were done with this reverse image process for a solo show of Mary Vaughan’s work at Hastings College in 2017.
Vapor Wave
60 x 49”
Collection of Kate Bowman-Wilcox
San Rafael, CA
This tall, vertical painting captures light across the rocky coast of Maine, yet this image sums up the beauty of shorelines everywhere. Kate’s homes are always design-based to warm perfection and this soothing painting was happy to find a home where light, air and texture are part of everyday life.
First Grass
33 x 50”
Collection of John & Jean Fallick
Lincoln, NE
This abstract based on the hymn Morning has Broken, is all about early light. The title comes from the line, “like the first dew fall on the first grass,” and suggests new beginnings and faith in renewal. A commission was necessary here to fit the lighting and overall feel of the client’s dishware, furniture and architectural dining cove.
Blue Heron Befriends an Owl
Collection of Pam Selvaraj & Jeff Goodwin
Santa Rosa, CA
This two-part painting on panels for a front door entrance speaks so much of friendship and minds that think alike in a positive way. This home was rebuilt after devastating fires hit in Santa Rosa in 2017. Avid collectors of art, the owners built their home back with 4 added feet to the foundation for more room to hang art in the future, and a front door that would be unusual, artful and inviting. The blue heron is a symbol of determination and resilience, while the owl suggests that wisdom lies in knowing what is truly important – life itself.
Porch Art
22 x 12”
Collection of Mary Vaughan
Hastings, NE
The artist created a simplified painting of a blue heron (influenced by the illustrator Charlie Harper) for her childhood home in Nebraska. Metal adornment of bendable nesting enhances this outdoor painting that brings a bit of delight to a 1933 cottage-style screened-in front porch.
Reverse Cranes Porch Door
Collection of Mary Vaughan
Hastings, NE
The artist and her wood-working friend Jack Sandeen created this double Sandhill Crane design for the porch door of her childhood home in Nebraska. No modern doors would fit the 1933 home, so creativity took over and this is what emerged. It remains a screen door in the summer months with cranes, then changes over to a winter door with solid color inserts during the harsher weather.
Kitchen Back Splash
Collection Mary Vaughan
Hastings, NE
When Vaughan redid the kitchen that her grandfather Hilding built cabinetry for in 1962, she wanted the Vintage to have a warm relationship with the Modern. An abstract painting of raw roses on a soft, yellow background not only pays homage to her mother’s favorite flower, but is also functional to cook next to. This image was painted on wooden cut-outs to fit the space, then protected with durable resin and installed.
Landscape of Letters Lectern
Collection of the Willa Cather Foundation
Red Cloud, NE
The artists Jack Sandeen and Mary Vaughan collaborated to create a speakers podium for the Willa Cather Foundation in 2016. A Victorian church lectern became the structure to use as Sandeen worked his magic into the wood, creating a topper with a hand-carved plow, letter slots in back and vintage red go-cart wheels for ease of movement. Vaughan placed an open sky landscape in the front opening of the piece. Another landscape (not visible) is painted directly on the top of the lectern so that speakers see land throughout their talks. The added idea was that each speaker who visits Catherland would write a letter to Cather herself and slip it through the slots to record history and time.
A Love Story
Collection of Nathan and Jessi Hoeft
Hastings, NE
From time to time, the artist likes to paint objects on white as still lifes are sometimes painted. It sharpens her rendering and realism skills, but also challenges her to think of ideas that can be more than what they appear. In this case, beverage cans become personified to symbolize two people as a happy couple. This can portrait is visual metaphor, painted as a gift to the Hoefts who own First Street Brewing Co. in Nebraska and supplied the artist with a studio when she needed space to create.
The Black Cape for OPTIKA Curated Eyewear
Collection of Mikaela Krueger
Hastings, NE
When a friend asked for help with a new business logo, Vaughan went a little further when seeing her black and white interior design ideas. A large, vertical painting of an Art Deco lady wearing glasses had to be designed and painted for her downtown space. The vintage illustration of The Black Cape by Aubrey Beardsley was turned into paint and reworked to cater to the world of eyewear. This elegant floating female in black, delicately places spectacles to her eyes. Everything about this black and white painting suggests style and regality.
flatwater
29 x 66"
Collection of Mary & Paco Diaz
Leawood, KS
This image of the low-flowing Platte River of Nebraska was painted for an old college friend and her husband who grew up in the state with a special connection to this wide waterway where bird life thrives. Two paintings of raw brambles are placed on the sides of the main narrative to hint at the life energy of organisms and plants that rely on this beloved artery. This soothing natural channel is metaphor to our own lives that shift and change with the currents of living.