Across the Water, oil on panel, 18 x 18 inches
Across the Water, oil on panel, 18 x 18 inches

Margaret Lawrence finds inspiration in images gathered from a variety of sources. Nature, personal experience, and a reflective, internalized response to her physical environment inform her tranquil and textured dreamscapes, which seem to exist at the horizon between the personal and the universal.

In Lawrence’s own words,”My paintings are developed by removing paint as much as by applying it. Through this layering, the give and take of paint, an image that was inspired by a specific place transforms into a sense of place.” This approach yields a rich image using layered surfaces with deceptively complex color and texture. Both the effect achieved and Lawrence’s process itself are evocative of dream formation, wherein specific personal memories undergo a similar cycle of abrasion and accretion before they wash up in our dreams. Stripped of literal meaning but enriched with latent content, they exist in the symbolic realm, just beyond the grasp of language, where boundaries soften and binaries dissolve….

About the new work:

These recent paintings are a further exploration of the interplay between water, land and sky. Grounded in the constancy of the daily cycles of the sun and tide, I am drawn to colors and textures at various times of day or year that tap a sense of wonder.

After working as a registered nurse until her children were school aged, Margaret decided to pursue a long-harbored interest in art, eventually earning a BFA at  Maine College of Art. In 2015, she was commissioned to create four large paintings for the Augusta Judicial Center’s permanent collection. In recent years she has participated in an artist residency at the International School of Painting and Drawing and Sculpture in Umbria, Italy. Her work is in many private and corporate collections in Canada, Great Britain, and throughout the U.S. Margaret has been represented by Greenhut since 1997.

New Work runs from November 3 – 26, 2016

Opening reception Thursday November 3rd 5-7pm

Gallery Hours:  Mon to Fri 10am – 5:30pm and Saturday 10am – 5pm 

For More Information call 207.772.2693 

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