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Beauty runs wild on Salt Spring:
the best I can hope for is to capture but a moment of it.
Art became an important part of Margaret's life while attending the University of British Columbia. A serendipitous class in oil painting with Joseph Plaskett inspired her to explore the world of art. Although she completed a B.Sc. Nursing degree, married, and had three children, Margaret never gave up her dream to become an artist. Throughout the years, her style has evolved through study and experimentation.
Since arriving on Salt Spring in 1984, Margaret's style has begun to evolve in two different, yet wholly complementary directions. On the one hand, the beauty of life on a working farm, surrounded by the cycles of nature, continually inspires her to record the beauty of the colours and forms. On the other hand, intuitive, semi-abstract work fills her with excitement. This art form resulted from studies at the Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts in 1993 with Victoria artist Brian R. Johnson.
Her work continues, exploring new techniques and colour combinations, mostly in watercolour, but pastel, pencil, and oils are intriguing alternate mediums. Seminars with renowned teachers are another source of inspiration and she feels privileged to have studied with Salt Spring artists Jack Avison and Alan Edwards.
Margaret finds that membership in the Salt Spring Island Painters Guild provides wonderful opportunities for learning, for working with other artists, for teaching, and for presentation of her art to the public. Visitors are welcome to her studio, located on a Salt Spring Island heritage farm.
As part of the millennium celebration, Margaret was commissioned by the Allied Land Trust and the Salt Spring Conservancy for their "Islands in the Salish Sea" mapping project to create an agricultural map of Salt Spring Island.
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