“OCTOBER”: D&R Greenway Land Trust will benefit from the artworks sold in their exhibit, “Our Countryside: Paintings, Photographs, and Prints by Mary Waltham,” at Chambers Walk Café on Main Street in Lawrenceville. Pictured here is one of Waltham’s oil paintings, which like most of her work, is inspired by nature.

D&R Greenway Land Trust both inspired and will benefit from the sales from Our Countryside: Paintings, Photographs and Prints by Mary Waltham, at Chambers Walk Café, 2667 Main Street, Lawrenceville, November 1 through December 30. Much of the artwork was made on D&R Greenway’s preserved lands in central New Jersey. Fifty percent of sales will support D&R Greenway’s preservation and stewardship mission. The exhibit is on view during café hours: 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. daily, and 6-9 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

“I love how Mary’s artwork depicts landscapes so important to our community character,” says Linda Mead, president and CEO. “She has been most generous to us in past exhibits and with this one, honoring our preservation of 20,000 acres in central New Jersey.”

“I am excited to be in a position to support D&R Greenway in this way once again,” says Princeton-based Waltham, “raising awareness and spreading the word of D&R Greenway’s mission, as well as supporting a private local restaurant that serves local farm-to-table ingredients, often raised on preserved land. It is intended to be a three-way win!”

After a career as a biologist and in science publishing, Waltham brings a distinctly different perspective to nature, her inspiration. Born and educated in England, Waltham grew up on a farm in a small village in Dorset, a rural county immortalized in Thomas Hardy’s novels and poetry. “My work is a continuum of this early experience and is rooted in the natural environment,” she says. “I explore the countryside from my own deep familiarity with and knowledge of particular places and processes.”

Her practice is often driven by walking outdoors. “Walking is a meditation that enables me to immerse myself in a place and then to work imaginatively in my art practice,” she says. “Artistic expression about nature is anything but an escape from reality. It is a pressing commentary on the state of our planet and the politics and policies that shape public debate about our environment, and the questions we need to confront. My intention is to contribute to this rise in interest and to spark new conversations, by bringing the landscape to life. I hope those who experience my work will discover a renewed feeling of intimacy with the natural environment. Fundamentally my work is about the beauty of what we can have around us.”

Waltham’s recent juried shows have been at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie, Artworks Trenton, and the Arts Council of Princeton. She won a 2012 Mercer County Purchase Prize.

For more information about Chambers Walk Café, phone (609) 896-5995. To learn more about D&R Greenway and land preservation in central New Jersey, visit www.drgreenway.org.