“Mary’s Last Masterpiece” is a tender documentary about Mary Cane-Honeysett (1936-2016), a self taught visual artist. At the time of the filming, Mary was 74 and living in Fulham, London, in the same house where she’d lived all her life. Despite her age, Mary had a goal: to participate in the Royal Academy’s summer exhibition. It’s an ideal that gave her life a direction.
Despite her annual entries, Mary’s paintings were never accepted by the Academy. When her son, Tony, wanted to make a documentary about her, Mary protested saying she didn’t have anything interesting to say and that her house was more interesting than she was. So Tony said, “Well then we’ll make the video about the house” and thus tricked his mom into believing that the film would be about the house.
Mary’s house in Fulham was her anchor. After raising her kids and losing her husband, Mary focused on creating that one yearly painting to submit to the Academy. Her paintings were about Fulham and her neighborhood. She documented shops and buildings that were gradually disappearing to make room for the big and the new.
Mary’s efforts to create the painting that would get her into the exhibition are truly inspiring. Despite her age and the difficulties in getting around, she would take her finished paintings all wrapped in butcher paper on a tour of London using public transport just to have them mesured for the right kind of frame. Once the frame was selected, Mary would have it cut then take the wood home to make the frame herself. This meant hauling the wood for the frame as well as the painting itself back home again still using public transport.
The year the video was made, Mary didn’t make it into the exhibition and, still using public transportation, had to go retrieve her rejected painting. Nevertheless, although rejected over and over again, Mary stayed true to herself and kept painting and kept entering the Academy competition every year.
Then Mary had a stroke and everything changed. She struggled to paint and when her hands started to tremble too much to keep a brush steady, she gave up trying.
But Mary was animated from within. As a young girl, she’d dreamed of being an actress. And, at the age of 81, Mary made her acting debut in “Edna Cloud”, a story about a fictional artist, Edna Cloud, who has robbers break into her house. The video was filmed by one son with the other son (as well as the grandson) participating as an actor. “Edna Cloud” is short, sweet, and amusing. It’s also an indication of how much her sons loved her. And there’s no art exhibit that can surpass that kind of honor.
Mary’s story is just one more example of how ideals give you a direction.
I prefer to paint, she said.
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Related: ART OF MARY CANE-HONEYSETT, PAINTINGS OF FULHAM + SURPRISING EDNA – My Mum’s Dream Was To Be An Actress. So I Put Her In A Film +
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