Marie Mouawad Smith was born in Chiah, Lebanon on 21st February 1939. She was the second child to Céleste and Bechara Mouawad, and grew up with her five siblings:- Cecile, George, Elham, Nadia and Habouba.

Her school years were spent between St Joseph de l'Apparition in Beirut, les Soeurs de Besançon in Baabdat, the American school of Shweifat and lastly, Les Soeurs des Saints Coeurs in Jounieh.

After few years at home her father finally relented and allowed her to study nursing. She graduated in 1964 from the Faculté Française de Medicine nursing school in Beirut and immediately was recruited by the main French university hospital in Beirut, Hôtel Dieu de France.

Marie worked there for ten years mostly running a private ward with a year’s stint in Paris at Hôpital Saint Louis where she specialised in nursing dermatological diseases.

In the summer of 1974 Marie resigned from Hôtel Dieu to marry Terry Smith, a geophysicist working at that time in Jakarta. Terry and Marie met in 1972 and had dated for a year in Beirut prior to his transfer to Indonesia. Marie travelled to Jakarta to be married in October 1974. Their son Marc was born at Hotel Dieu de France, Beirut in August 1975.

The family returned to England in September 1975 and after ten months the Smith trio moved in June 1976 to Terry’s new assignment in Cairo. April 1978 finds them in Madrid and January 1981 in Tunisia. The Netherlands became their home from November 1984 until May1989 when they returned to England and settled in Bedford.

Finding herself with time on her hands Marie embarked on variety of learning courses: - counselling in Hackney, neuro linguistic programming at St Ann's Hospital, reflexology at the Baily School in London, body massage, carpentry, interior design and painting & decorating at Bedford College.

Running out of ideas on what to do next, a kind neighbour suggested watercolour painting. The suggestion led Marie stumbling into the art world.

Marie above all else, is a loving wife and mother to her husband Terry and only child Marc. After that she is a student of life, with an insatiable appetite for learning brought about by her gregarious outgoing personality, a lifetime of nurturing the two men in her life, travelling, and her voracious reading.