Mary Ellen Harney

Mary Ellen Harney is our Artist in Residence at Happy on Main West Concord. Her paintings are on our wall October 14 through December 31, 2026.

A Concord painter known for large-scale abstracts, Mary Ellen builds flat, even fields of color by hand, a process she says demands focus and calm. She's fascinated by how colors interact, how some soothe and how each shifts depending on its neighbor. Her work draws on Ellsworth Kelly and Roy Lichtenstein, and her Flat Ass series began with the simplified shape of her youngest son's rubber donkey toy.

She holds a B.S. from Boston College and a Master of Arts in Teaching in Art Education from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and has taught art at the MFA and in the Newton Public Schools. She lives in Concord with her husband and four sons.

“Clean lines bring me happiness.”

Every piece is one of a kind and available for pickup at our West Concord shop, 86 Commonwealth Avenue.