Margaret Lipsey

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Margaret began painting with acrylics in 2000 while she was studying at Culinary school in Vermont. She enjoyed the freedom and emotions of abstract art. Her abstracts are inspired by her minimalist and modern aesthetic and through the exploration of other art forms, developed into what they are today.
She returned to painting in 2015 with a series of dresses in watercolour. Her practice gained momentum when she began exploring the series in acrylic. Building textures, creating sweeping movements and the play of colours off her palette knives coupled with the image of a woman standing in a gown created a unique work that carries the life force of the women who inspire us all.
With a deepening need to explore textures, she began again to create her abstract works. Her latest series, Serenity, includes works that feel both joyous and serene with colours blending softly before diving deeply into rich vibrant tones. Centered around greens and blues with punches of orange, the collection marries well with warm cozy environments as well as crisp modern expanses. It has unlocked for Margaret a freedom in playing with colors, a means to express beyond textures, and a way to embrace the process of growth as an artist.
Margaret has shown in international shows across Canada the US including Montreal, Toronto, Miami, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, and Chicago.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

The act of painting brings a quiet to my mind, a sense of peace, and an understanding of beauty. Through the last two years, the search for those things has become even more central to my practice. Finding the colors that bring me a sense of calm, learning how combining them into more muted tones that subtly shifts the work, deepening it.
My abstracts are pieces of myself coming out into the world. These are an intuitive release that only come to recognize upon completion of the work. My abstract pieces allow me to travel deeper into my beliefs and my feelings. One canvas is composed of a hundred moments thereby becoming a novel to be read and reread. They are as varied as my thoughts, but collections slowly reveal themselves the longer I participate in their creation. I see these paintings as true reflections of who I am as an artist; a constant balancing game between light and dark, heavy intentional strokes and arbitrary spots, there is movement and action, texture of paper and the smoothness of paint, and through it all there is the thread of color. I endeavour to explore the interactions of muted and saturated, how tones and shades create conversation, and learning to mould their power to express what is beyond words.