Mary Roberson was born in Fort Smith, Ark. in 1948 and moved with her family to Redondo Beach, CA in 1952. She began painting at age 10 and at age 16, received a scholarship to study Life Drawing at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles.

Although her formal education emphasized human anatomy, once leaving college, she traveled and painted throughout northern California, mostly doing watercolors of the land, the cattle and harbors. After she married in 1976, she quit painting and raised three children and then resumed her art career in 1991 and again began painting landscapes and cattle scenes, which, by 1995, led to her present passion for wildlife. Although she is self-taught in painting wildlife and landscape, she's found that her extensive education in human anatomy and design has contributed a great deal to her ability to paint boldly and spontaneously.