MEG LEONARD

ARTIST STATEMENT

Growing up in Ohio, my gaze was transfixed out the back seat window on annual family car trips to Alabama through the Smoky Mountains, and in the summer to Vermont winding through hills of Upstate New York. After my first trip west, romancing the road became my passion. Friends and I would take to the open highway, camping across America for months at a time, reveling in the splendor of our National Parks and public lands. The flood of emotion watching sunsets on St. Mary’s Lake in Glacier National Park, triple rainbows dancing up Taos Mountain, and the awe-inspiring energy within clouds and earth affected me deeply. In 1996, a trip to Japan as an artist delegate impressed me with the cultural links between the Far East and our Southwest. I was intrigued with the simplicity, elegance, and sublime nature of their art. But it was the landscape of New Mexico that has been my inspiration and outdoor studio since 1977. My work since then has been influenced by the vastness of the sky, the energy of the land, and the magical drama of their meeting.

Much of what I witness while traveling and painting outdoors has a sacredness and magnificence that traditional painting techniques have sought to communicate. I work in the Plein-Aire method outdoors using pastels for their vibrancy and immediacy. It is in the studio, however, where the internal memory of atmosphere and light quality are transformed to larger pieces and oil paintings. Here the details are distilled. As I’ve matured, I have found more grandeur in intimate places and mystery in the shadows. I’m intrigued by the power of color and where it goes when sunlight fades. I’m compelled to consider this in paintings of the night and reflections in rivers.

These landscapes offer healing peace and reverence for the natural order. When I observe and draw, I am only a conduit of higher power. I hope my paintings evoke in the viewer the feeling of awe in a particular moment. When my work is successful, I can share the sense of wonder in the quality of light, and it will serve as a record of a precious environment during its time of critical change. These paintings are my prayers.

Meg completed her career as an RN in Wisconsin, where she lived for thirty years, and now maintains studios in Placitas, New Mexico and Alpharetta, Georgia.