Margot was born in Ontario and chose to pursue a career in law and family mediation. She initially took lessons in pastel and watercolour as a way of reducing the stress of conflict in her professional life. However, she soon found that the demands of her career actually nurtured her artistic pursuits. Just as a mediator must deeply listen to the underlying narrative in the room, attuned to those things that perhaps aren’t said, so also can the artist focus her attention on the quiet moments that are sometimes camouflaged in the landscape.
Over the years, Margot has continually taken art workshops and lessons. She has shown a number of her pastel pieces in juried exhibitions with the Pastel Artists of Canada and is a signature member of that organization. Margot has also exhibited a number of her paintings at the Federation of Canadian Artists’ gallery on Granville Island. She has been juried in as an active member of that organization. She has also participated in the Art of Healing events at the Sechelt hospital on three occasions and been part of the Sunshine Coast Art Crawl since 2016. This December, she is showing a painting in the “Water Exhibit” at the Federation gallery and another painting at the members show at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery.
Margot is an avid supporter of ongoing quality art education for all ages. She is on the board of the Gibson’s School of the Arts, and she liaises with the artists who come annually to teach at the school.
In Margot’s words, “I work with pastel, acrylic, and oil. I am drawn to the subtle changes in spatial expanse, texture, colour, and temperature that manifest themselves in the landscape. There are the quiet moments of contrast of a dark reflection in a silver lake, the expanse of distant islands in the ocean, the textures on a stone beach, or the difference between the cool grey rock and the warm green moss that covers it.
The making of a painting allows me to create a blending of all those different moments, the perspectives, textures, colours, and values into a single story. I hope that the stories I tell through my paintings will transport the viewer to a place of tranquil focus, away from the distraction of the busy world, in touch with what is essential and universal in the landscape.”
