Mary Weatherford represents a unique demographic in the contemporary art market. As the journalist Robin Pogrebin recently wrote in The New York Times, she is “a middle-aged, midcareer female artist who has slowly, quietly earned her share of fame.” Born in 1963 and raised in California, Weatherford draws her work from the idiosyncrasies she observes in rural and urban environments. The artist is exact in her creative process, paying attention to everything from the linen she paints on to the type of pigment she applies to works on paper. Predominantly covered by the color green, her new paintings symbolize trees, the ocean, and outer space (Weatherford has a collection of NASA photographs). To make this series, Weatherford stapled linen to her studio floor and poured light-colored paint into wet spots of darker color. Though using the same technique for every piece, the artist achieves all kinds of results. —Jeanne Malle