Meet the Artist
Margaret Loraine Edmondson
Margaret grew up in a small town in Southern Illinois and discovered her love of art early. She earned her BS in Art Education from Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky in 2000, and later completed her MFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), commuting weekly to Georgia to pursue that dream.
She met her husband Shawn their freshman year at Murray State, and over the course of their marriage they have moved out of state ten times in thirty years following his career. Along the way, Margaret worked as an interior designer in Southeast Missouri for three years and has taught art to all ages across multiple states, including Florida, Tennessee, East Texas, Northern California, North Texas, and the St. Louis and Dallas-Fort Worth areas.
Now celebrating 26 years of marriage with two children in high school, Margaret continues to create and teach wherever life takes her. Her motto says it all: “Do something creative at least once a day.”
“Use your talents, that is what they are intended for.”
What You'll Find in My Work
“What you will find in my artwork is the beauty of what I see around me.” Margaret favors drawing and painting to express realism, using her camera as an initial sketch before pairing down and combining scenes by hand.
Her subjects are drawn from her travels and environment: cattle, farm animals, and wild sunflowers from her years in Texas; cactus and the vivid colors of Arizona that she became obsessed with; and beach scenes from family vacations to Alabama and California.
Recently, Margaret has been experimenting with textures, printmaking, text, and sewing for mixed media collages. Her Encouragement Series was a collaborative project with friend Jenny Donaldson, inspired by Rick Rubin's The Creative Act: A Way of Being.
The Creative Process
Observe
Every piece begins with seeing. Margaret uses her camera to capture the beauty around her — landscapes, animals, light on water — as the first sketch for what comes next.
Compose
Reference photos are paired down and combined by hand, distilling multiple scenes into a single composition that captures the feeling of being there.
Create
Whether through painting, drawing, printmaking, or mixed media collage with textures, text, and sewing, Margaret brings each piece to life with warmth and attention to detail.
