By Denise Dunbar | ddunbar@alextimes.com

Sometimes finding one’s passion is actually a calling rather than a pursuit. Alexandria resident Mary Page Hickey feels that way about her path to becoming an accomplished botanical painter.

“I didn’t choose this – it chose me,” she said of melding, over time, her love of horticulture, the environment and art into the beautiful watercolors she creates at the small, well-lit table in her home studio.

Though she hails from a family of artists – paintings by her mother, step-grandfather and a daughter hang on her walls alongside her own botanical works – art was not Mary Page’s passion as she was growing up.

“When I was at school in Connecticut, I painted because art class was the norm,” she said. “No one ever gave me the feeling that I had any talent, so I gave it short shrift.”

The influence of her family was there nonetheless.

“I was brought up by a mother who was an unprofessional artist, who had training and talent, but was undisciplined and [she] also had five children,” Mary Page laughed. “I started out drawing and painting because that’s what we did.”

A love of history

Mary Page greatly appreciates the history of Alexandria – where she moved in 2000 for family reasons after spending most of her life in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan – partly because her own family history is so interesting.

Ancestors on her father’s side of the family were among the earliest settlers of Detroit. The French and Native Americans were fighting each other nearby and what would become the United States were still British colonies. One of Mary Page’s great-grandfathers knew Wild Bill Cody, who is commonly known as “Buffalo Bill,” and fought in Civil War battles throughout the West and Virginia, winning the Congressional Medal of Honor for his valor at the final battle at Gettysburg.

“Mother was from a puritanical Episcopalian and Quaker background, from Philadelphia – though I was raised Catholic and have been a practicing Catholic my entire life. Dad was from old Detroit. … There is much history there, which I find fascinating,” she said.

Her compelling family story inspired Mary Page to study genealogy. It is an ongoing pursuit which is but one facet of her lifelong drive to self-educate in an array of fields. This self-education is both a reflection of her personality and also was necessitated by illness and the era in which she was raised.

“I studied at Manhattanville College, now University, only one year, sadly,” Mary Page said. “I was going for a [bachelor’s degree] in English … and then got very sick with mononucleosis and had to forgo my sophomore year. At the end of that year, my parents decided I was not a very good bet, which I try not to resent. They thought I would probably get married soon. I had no intention of getting married. I was having a high old time in the late ‘50s.”

After recovering from mono, instead of heading back to college, Mary Page’s parents sent her to the Katharine Gibbs School in Manhattan to become a secretary.

“It was a different era. We had three choices: nurse, secretary or teacher. Period.”

She loved New York City and had friends, as well as godparents, there. But her time in the city only lasted a year, as love intervened.

“One of my friends was commuting on a very regular basis to dine and wine me, and that turned out to be the man I ended up marrying, William Stark Hickey. I was in love with him, and am still in love with him, though he’s been gone 35 years,” Mary Page said.

Years of service

Mary Page moved back to Grosse Pointe Farms to get married. She and Bill eventually had four children and she lived in their second home for 40 years, until the move to Alexandria. As soon as she married, Mary Page channeled whatever free time family obligations permitted into an array of volunteer work.

“I was into volunteer work right from the beginning, as I was brought up to work and be of service to people – both those in my house and also those less fortunate. We took care of people’s Thanksgivings and Christmases, visiting them in Detroit. It was all part of my Christian upbringing,” she said.

The first volunteer job she had was as a nurse’s aide at a Detroit hospital at the age of 15.

“The volunteer work after marriage started with the junior league, with a year of training. I was sent to the Detroit Senior Center, working with older people. I became involved in environmental work, which led to horticultural studies,” Mary Page said.

About this time, she also tried her hand again at painting, by taking a course, but life intervened.

“I took a painting course when I had two toddlers. I was working on an oil painting at 9 o’clock at night and realized that wasn’t very smart. My husband and children needed me.”

While she had to give up painting for the time being, the attempt left her realizing she needed a balance in her life that included time for her to pursue her own interests. Horticulture became a passion, as she found she could easily combine it with parenting.

“As the children were growing fast, in order to be a more supervisory parent, I spent more time in the garden, got into horticulture seriously and had a lot of training,” she recalled.

Mary Page’s love of horticulture went from a hobby to a vocation.

After training and volunteer work she eventually formed her own company, in which she consulted with and advised people on what to plant in their gardens. Once a plan was decided upon, she would work with the landscapers. She had private as well as school and church clients.

Soon after, she became a Michigan horticultural star.

“I was a member of the Garden Club of Michigan, and that’s where it started. I was the head of the Horticulture Committee. We had to enter an exhibit – an impossible place in Detroit such as an intersection, and make a new plan [for] improving that area. We did that and won over many others in Ohio, Illinois and Indiana,” Mary Page said.

With first place award in hand, Mary Page and her co-chairman worked with the Grosse Pointe Farms mayor, who appointed her chair of the Grosse Point Farms Beautification Commission. As an old city with many green spaces in derelict condition, Grosse Point needed updating.

“The city leadership knew all about the infrastructure, such as pipes and plumbing, but they had no clue about green space and I was big into the environmental world,” she said.

Mary Page chaired the Grosse Pointe Beautification Commission for the next 11 years, during which she helped other townships start Beautification Commissions.

“It was like a bowling ball once it got rolling and was very successful.”

A botanical painter

After Bill’s tragic and early death in 1988, a friend from New York called with an offer that changed her life.

“She said, ‘You’ve got to come to England and do this botanical training.’ I said, ‘I don’t have time and haven’t picked up a paint brush in 20 years.’ It turned into a two-month odyssey in Europe, which was an incredibly enriching and happy time,” she recalled.

The 10-day course in the Midlands of England was just the start. While in England, Mary Page completed her first two botanical paintings, received encouragement and was hooked for life.

“It picked me. I didn’t pick it,” she emphasized.

Upon return, she decided to spend time painting rather than playing bridge and other time-consuming pursuits. Her training was assisted by the

fact that Anne-Marie Evans, her internationally acclaimed botanical painting teacher, began to teach classes in the U.S.

Mary Page discovered that she most enjoys intensive, week-long classes as opposed to the weekly variety. She now has a group of artist friends with whom she has regular video calls, which started during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which they critique one another’s work while also offering encouragement.

“We have two-hour zoom calls on a monthly basis,” she said. “We paint alone and then send photographs the day before our meeting, which are made into a powerpoint. For half an hour we talk about our lives, the rest of the time about each one of our works, whatever we’re working on at the time.”

One of Mary Page’s botanical paintings is in the book “American Botanical Paintings: Native Plants of the Mid Atlantic,” which she also helped edit. Additionally, a collection of her work is being made into a book. She has exhibited in shows in the Washington, D.C. area, New York City, upstate New York and London. Her paintings also appear in various periodicals.

This octogenarian also finds the energy to practice yoga, play tennis, belong to a book club, walk with various friends each morning and continue with volunteer work. Mary Page offered simple advice to living a fulfilled life.

“Do what makes you happy and productive. Gardening for me is therapeutic. Exercising is absolutely essential. I paint to classical music and do needlepoint in the evenings.”

However, the most important guidelines in Mary Page’s life are faith, family, friends – and fun.

“I need faith first. I couldn’t live without that.”