Margaret McWethy is an Impressionist painter with a lifelong interest in art and nature. She paints the scenes that surround her, but her real subjects are the brilliance of light and the rhythms of nature.
Margaret studied art history and biology at Swarthmore College. Since graduating in 1977, she has sought teachers who base their art on training, careful observation, and understanding. Master colorist Henry Hensche, nationally known portrait artist Cedric Egeli, impressionist John Ebersberger, and sculptors David Farrell and Stephen Perkins have all been influential teachers who have helped Margaret learn the skills and discipline needed to express her personal view of nature. Their media are different — drawing, painting, sculpting — but their philosophies are similar: only through diligent development of vision can truth be recreated.
The pursuit of knowledge to enhance her seeing of the world has become an ongoing journey for Margaret. Her background in the sciences tends to make her approach a blend of the analytical and inuitive.
"I like the idea of reducing things to parts to see how they work, then reconstructing and editing. Not with the object of reducing things to formulas, but to reach some real understanding with which one can then begin to create. Lately, I've been exploring the small landscape of the still-life. I enjoy the intimacy of the relationships."
Margaret is a featured artist in "Painting the Impressionist Landscape" by Lois Griffel, "Capturing Radiant Oils" by Susan Sarbeck, and "Painting the Impressionist Watercolor" by Lee Boynton. Her work hangs in private collections in the United States and Europe.
Margaret, a native of Maryland, now lives and paints in Massachusetts, where she teaches Painting the Impressionist Landscape.