BIOGRAPHY

A native of Berks County, PA, Margaret earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Penn State University, where she majored in printmaking with a specialty in etchings. She moved to New Orleans with her husband, where she continued her education at Tulane University, earning a Master of Fine Arts in printmaking. While at Tulane, she taught adult classes in printmaking and watercolor. She also worked in the French Quarter as a freelance watercolor artist. Moving to Houston, Texas, she studied at the University of St. Thomas, achieving a Master of Education degree in Elementary Education and Art Education. After teaching elementary school in Houston for four years, her family moved to Lititz, PA in 1990. She taught fourth grade at Lititz Elementary School for 18 years, retiring in 2010 to become a full-time artist.

Margaret specializes in watercolor realism. She changes her subjects often, as she turns to different events that pass through her life. Local scenes, unique moments of life, and memorable adventures are typical subject matter. Her paintings are without angst and reflect a down to earth and easy-going personality. Margaret resides in Lititz, PA, with her husband Art, a retired geologist, and their adopted old dog “Seby.” She has two grown children who live in Baltimore and Bangkok.

Margaret's art studio is not a formal place. It is simply the dining room table. With watercolor painting, she doesn't need much - just paper, paints, a tub of water, an easel and time. Her paintings are very detailed. She paints mostly from her own photographs, but has also painted from photographs taken by family members. Margaret slowly builds up layers of paint, creating a rich, three-dimensional, realistic likeness of each subject. Each painting takes between 60 to 100 hours to complete. Her basement is her workshop and storage area, where you can always find her husband Artie, who is her partner, business manager, webmaster, giclée printmaker and framer. Margaret welcomes visitors to her studio by chance or appointment.

GICLÉE PRINTS

Margaret takes special pride in the quality of her limited edition giclée prints. Each print is made using the giclée process, as opposed to the offset lithography method. A giclée print (Discussion of Term) is an invented name for the process of making fine art prints from a digital source using inkjet printing. Each of her original paintings is digitally scanned at full size. The digital image is software-adjusted so that colors, brightness, contrast, and tone exactly match the original painting. Each image is individually printed in her art studio on textured, heavyweight, matte finish fine art paper, using an Epson Stylus Pro printer. The printer uses UltraChrome K3 ink, which is a pigment-type ink rather than a dye-type ink. Pigment inks are renowned for their very large color gamut, excellent water fastness and superior longevity (permanence rating as high as 200 years). Each limited edition print is individually signed and numbered.