Marybeth Leis Druery is a visual artist whose contemplative painting practice explores reflection, aliveness, and connection through intuitive colour, gesture, and luminous layers. She paints to make visible the light and vitality often felt but unseen. For Marybeth, painting is a practice of presence—a way of slowing down, listening deeply, and remaining open to what emerges.

Her paintings develop through an intuitive process in which she responds rather than imposes, allowing the work to unfold through an ongoing dialogue between intention and discovery. Through shifting layers of light, texture, and flow, her paintings hold movement as much as stillness and invite viewers to pause and encounter a deeper way of seeing ourselves and the living world around us.

Alongside her studio practice, Marybeth works as an Expressive Arts facilitator and Spiritual Companion, and is a community organizer with the Hamilton charity Student Open Circles, where she integrates the arts and mindfulness to support creative engagement in social change. She facilitates creative processes for individuals and groups that foster self-awareness, meaning-making, and personal agency.

She holds a Bachelor of Education from Western University, a Graduate Certificate in Expressive Arts from Haliburton School of Art + Design, and a Graduate Certificate in Spiritual Direction through the Ontario Jubilee Program.

Painting and contemplation are intertwined in her life, each shaping and deepening the other. Her work has been exhibited throughout Hamilton, featured in international publications, and is held in private collections.

Select Exhibitions

  • 2011-2024: Art in the Workplace, Group Exhibitions, Atrium @ MIP, McMaster Innovation Park
  • 2018: Best Place for a Child? Solo Exhibition, Turner Park Library, Hamilton, Ontario
  • 2018-2020: Group Exhibition, Art @ 231 Gallery, James Street North, Hamilton, Ontario
  • 2015: SWARM: Members Exhibition, Hamilton Artists’ Inc.
  • 2013-2015: Thou Art Party, Group Exhibition, James Street North Art Crawl, Hamilton, Ontario
  • 2012: Cosmic Whispers, Solo Exhibition, New City Gallery, Hamilton, Ontario
  • 2010: Image Meets Spirit, Group Exhibition, Gallery at First Unitarian, Hamilton, Ontario
  • 2008: Finding Voice, Solo Exhibition, Gallery at First Unitarian, Hamilton, Ontario
  • 2008: Visioning a Sacred Ecology, Group Exhibition, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
  • 2007: The Holiday Show, Group Exhibition, Gallery 435, Hamilton, Ontario
  • 2007: Finding Voice, Solo Exhibition, Skydragon Centre, Hamilton, Ontario
  • 2007: Visual Fringe, Group Exhibition, Downtown Arts Centre, Hamilton, Ontario
  • 2007: Summer Solstice, Group Exhibition, Gallery 435, Hamilton, Ontario

Publications

  • 2024: Lightness of Being, acrylic painting, selected as cover artwork for Longing for Liberation, One Thousand Trees
  • 2022: Welcoming What Is, acrylic painting, Multifaith Calendar
  • 2016: Joy, acrylic painting, Multifaith Calendar
  • 2015: Courtyard Home, illustration, Hamilton Health Sciences research paper
  • 2013: Creatively Reflecting through Service Experiences, Mandate Magazine
  • 2013: CD Cover Art and Design, acrylic paintings, The Other Side of Night
  • 2011: Wonder, watercolour painting, Multifaith Calendar
  • 2012: the universe belongs to the dancer, watercolour painting, Presence International Journal
  • 2010: Picked too Soon, watercolour painting, Presence International Journal

Select Courses and Workshops Facilitated

  • Expressive Arts Graduate Certificate Program, Haliburton School of Art and Design, Fleming College, ON
  • Awakening Your Creative Power Seminar Series, Ontario Arts Council Grant in collaboration with Hamilton Health Sciences and LEAP Artist’s Collective
  • Expressive Arts Circles, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON
  • Art as Spiritual Practice, Five Oaks Retreat Centre, Paris, Ontario
  • Artful Reflections Workshop, Jubilee Spiritual Directors Alumni conference
  • Awakening through Artistic Play, Spiritual Directors of Ontario conference
  • Centering on the solstice: with Mandala, Five Oaks Retreat Centre, Paris, ON
  • Creative Expression Workshops, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON
  • Creativity, Action, and Change, Global Citizenship Conference, McMaster
  • Meditating with Mandalas, Jubilee Spiritual Direction Training Program, Huron College, University of Western, London, Ontario
  • Movement as Spiritual Practice, Mayday Festival, Skydragon Centre, Hamilton, ON
  • Mandala Making and Meditation, First Unitarian Church, Hamilton, Ontario

Select Awards

  • Hamilton Women of Distinction Award, YWCA (2023)
  • Expressive Arts Achievement Award, Haliburton School of Art and Design, Fleming College, ON (2019)
  • Finalist (first runner up) for Hamilton Citizen of the Year award (2016)

Training

  • Expressive Arts Graduate Certificate Program – Haliburton School of Art and Design, Fleming College (2014 - 2019)
  • Painting with Acrylics - Sandee Ewasiuk, Dundas Valley School of Art
  • Jubilee Spiritual Formation and Direction Training Program, University of Western Ontario
  • Bachelor of Education, University of Western Ontario
  • Studio Fundamentals Course, University of Waterloo