Mary Lou Holmberg’s paintings are a vibrant reflection of an exuberance for life. Primarily working in watercolor, she creates art that pops, often capturing the eye withvivid color, and capturing the imagination with the interplay of abstract shapes and spatial composition. Her subject matter ranges from landscapes to mindscapes, but flowers are a favorite theme.

Painting by Mary Lou Holmberg.

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“Although I’m a grandmother,” the award-winning artist enthuses, “I don’t paint like a grandmother. I paint wild! And florals are my ‘scales’---they’re how I warm up.”

Holmberg has good reason to be enthusiastic about life. Diagnosed with lung cancer three years ago, she had a portion of a lung removed in 2007 at the Scripps Cancer Center at Scripps Mercy Hospital, and has been in remission ever since.

“I’m one of the lucky ones,” she says. “I’m a miracle!”

Holmbergis a member of the San Diego Watercolor Society, the La Jolla Art Association, the San Diego Museum of Arts, Artists Guild, the Sedona Art Center and the Northern Arizona Watercolor Society. She's also a frequent student at the Athenaeum School of the Arts in La Jolla. Her work has been selected for the El Cajon International Festival of Arts, juried into most of the San Diego Watercolor Society gallery shows, featured at the La Jolla Art Association gallery and recently included in a Northern Arizona Watercolor Society show at the Sedona Art Center.

Mary Lou Holmberg.

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Today (November 20) from noon to 9 p.m., Holmberg is presenting her one-woman art show, “Return” at Emerald Plaza (402 W. Broadway in downtown San Diego, with a reception from 4-8 p.m.).

“This is a celebration,” she says. “‘Return’ says I’m back! I’m back from cancer, I’m back to painting, I’m back to life!”

Ten percent of the proceeds from sales of the paintings, which range in price from $135-$900, will be donated to the Scripps Cancer Center.

“I’m doing this because I wanted to give back locally," says Holmberg. "I wanted to directly give to the staff at Scripps who took such good care of me, and who made it possible for me to be here today.”