INTERVIEW
extends beyond landscapes into florals, still life and
portraits, and it’s crucial for the artist to have the space
to step away from a subject if it’s no longer feeling fresh
or sitting comfortably with her. She admits this variety
is unusual for an artist, but it’s her way of retaining
her artistic vigour.
Margaret’s other influences also stem from her
formative years. She has only been working full time
as an artist for the past decade or so. Before this, art
was something she found time for “in the cracks of [her]
existence”, whether this was between semesters while
studying English and Theatre at Durban’s University of
Natal in South Africa, as a new mum while her children
were sleeping, or fitted in around her job as a professor
and theatre director. And it’s this stage experience that
particularly impacts her art today.
“Everything I learnt in the theatre, like how lighting
from the side shows form, plays into my life as a painter
because I always choose where I get my sun from,”
she says. “If you look at my work, a feature is the
luminosity of some of the images, and it’s really about
having learnt techniques for perception in the theatre –
how the audience has to perceive things through light
and colour and shape.”
Margaret also likes to think of her subjects as
characters on a stage, particularly her florals. She’s drawn
to the indigenous plants near her home, intrigued by how
they can push themselves into existence in such a harsh
environment and continue to survive. She also loves the
wonderful duality created by the delicate flowers that
seemingly spring from the barren soil and rocks.
It was in fact one of Margaret’s paintings of a native
buckwheat plant, Seeds of Change, that won the Artists &
Illustrators award at the Pastel Society’s Annual Exhibition
2020 at London’s Mall Galleries back in February. We were
particularly impressed with the painting’s trademark
iridescence, dramatic forms and gorgeous combination
of vivid, rich colours.
Having painted the subject many times before, Margaret
describes the plant as “an old friend” but after becoming
fascinated by the tiny buckwheat heads and capturing
them on camera, she took a different approach this time
around. What happened next was a reminder for the artist
that no matter how much you plan a painting, it sometimes
has a calling of its own.
“I was able to blow the photos up and see all the turmoil
of existence that happens in justoneheadofbuckwheat,”
Everything I learnt in
the theatre, like how
lighting from the side
shows form, plays into
my life as a painter