The Paths Converge

by Margaret Lipsey

Coco

Holidays

Spring Dance

The Blues

Tools

Birds

Diversity

Imagination

Aspirations of Unanimity

Grey Area

Catching Waves

Changes in Soil

Rain

The Journey

Artist: Margaret Lipsey

My practice began in starts and stops. In the winter of 2000 while attending culinary school, I decided one day to purchase acrylic paints, brushes, and canvases and see what happened. I played in the medium for a month or so before moving onto another creative outlet. Being a chef for the following 15 years didn’t leave much time for a hobby but acrylics would sneak back in for a couple weeks at a time throughout that period.

I began exploring two divergent paths in the summer of 2015. On one I found grace and strength; women demanding to be seen, giving pause to those who passed. They have power beyond the canvas. they delve into our being and reflect what we want to see in ourselves. This path is inspiring as an artist. These women are apart from me but they influence who I am. They take me to the realm of realistic fantasy; beyond my normal but not outside of my reach.

The other path is much more reflective. The abstracts are pieces of myself coming out into the world. These are an intuitive release that I only come to recognize upon completion of the work. My abstract pieces allow me to travel deeper into my beliefs and my thoughts. One canvas is composed of a hundred thoughts thereby becoming a novel to be read and reread. They are as varied as my thoughts but collections slowly reveal themselves the longer I participate in their creation. I see these paintings as true reflections of who I am as an artist; a constant balancing game between light and dark, heavy intentional strokes and arbitrary spots, there is movement and action.

The deeper my practice the more I realize that those two paths reference and connect in ways I could not have seen. The freedom of exploring creativity only connects me more soundly to my path of self awareness and the two paths converge to both broaden and concentrate my work.

I began to sell professionally in the fall of 2015 and painting became my full time vocation in the summer of 2016.

My studio is in my home in Saint Lambert, Quebec.