Sep 30

Sep 30 Mariana Peirano

On Yet Another Journey

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MAY 5, 2026

Mariana Peirano is getting ready to PAINT BIG. She and her husband are moving to Ajijic, Mexico, an art town of 11,000, much like Ojai. “Everywhere there are murals,” Mariana says, with barely suppressed excitement. “On garage doors, walls, schools, businesses. Everywhere. No restrictions.”

*Nemonte Nenquimo*, Oil on canvas, BY MARIANA PEIRANO

Mariana Peirano is getting ready to PAINT BIG. She and her husband are moving to Ajijic, Mexico, an art town of 11,000, much like Ojai. "Everywhere there are murals," Mariana says, with barely suppressed excitement. "On garage doors, walls, schools, businesses. Everywhere. No restrictions."

Mariana, who is known for her exquisitely observed portraits with elements of magical realism, always loved to draw, even as a two-year-old. Intrigued by all those murals, Mariana is currently painting a very large close-up of a woman's face. She wants to see if she likes working that large and be one of those muralists herself.

You can see this new painting and her other work this Saturday, May 9, when Mariana opens her studio for the Ojai Studio Artists Second Saturday Tour. All her work will be deeply discounted as she downsizes for the move.

But this is not Mariana's first big move to a new country. When she was 13, she and her family fled the Dirty War in Argentina to live with her uncle in Ohio. She had always been an A student and been learning English since second grade. But kids talked fast, and it was a rough time for her, a self-described introvert, until they moved to California.

As a high school student, she was chosen to do a summer internship at Otis-Parsons (now Otis College of Art and Design), then offered a scholarship. But she was headed on a different path, falling in love and starting a family. Working as a bilingual aide led to a career as an elementary school teacher, putting aside her art to focus on English as a Second Language, K-8. She wasn't doing her own art anymore. "My kindergarten bulletin boards were so elaborate!" she laughs.

She was promoted first to principal, then coordinator of the Migrant and Immigrant Services in Palmdale. It was rewarding work with the migrant population, but she was no bureaucrat. She was burnt out and knew she wasn’t doing what she should be doing. Her husband urged her to take a year off to attend the Academy of Figurative Art in Van Nuys, an intensive model-drawing program with 10-week poses, 10 am to 10 pm, five days a week.

With that foundation of training, she started painting again, first using pastels and acrylics, then oils. For a few years she shared studio space with 11 artists at the H Gallery in midtown Ventura and started exhibiting in galleries in Southern California and Canada. "It was a new, exciting experience and I finally felt like a real artist." She also joined the international women artists group Rootless, and through that group, exhibits in Germany and the U.S.

"I consider my work contemporary realism; however, my recent work has a touch of the mystical and spiritual, reflecting my own growth and awareness." The grace and beauty of the human body and the perplexity of facial expressions are recurring themes in her work, creating images that evoke emotion and portray the complexity of the human mind.

FROM THE SERIES “PAINTING THE WORDS” BY MARIANA PEIRANO

For Mariana, painting is also a form of release and self-reflection. "I'm an introvert and so it's not easy for me to express my feelings. The process of creating art fills a void, a need; it becomes a healing process and the final product mirrors those feelings." She writes poems to go along with her paintings, and recently is illustrating her poems and quotes about life and nature. She calls this series: "Painting the Words."

Moving to Ojai in 2017, she loved the trees and landscape, the calm of the community, but soon after experienced the Thomas Fire. The devastation affected her deeply, shifting her focus to climate change and "The urgent need for collective action to safeguard our precious natural world. Through my art, I want to inspire a dialogue that resonates with indigenous wisdom and an understanding of our interconnectedness, fostering a renewed commitment to protecting the environment for the sake of future generations."

*Nina gualinga - Leader of the Sarayak*u - Oil on canvas, FROM “INDIGENOUS WISDOM”

Searching the internet for interesting faces, Mariana came upon Nina Gualinga, a young activist who helped found AmazonWatch.org. Nina and the many other women activists working to save the Amazon became the subjects of Mariana’s riveting graphite-and-oil portrait series.

As she has focused more deeply on the environment, Mariana has begun to incorporate animals into her work, peeking out from lush, often surrealistic vegetation and exotically imagined flowers. She was surprised to realize she enjoys painting these stunningly imagined animals as much as drawing and painting her human subjects.