July Featured Artists: Beverly McNeil & Margaret Woodcock
Flora and Feathers
Beverly McNeil
Beverly McNeil, an avid birder, and nature lover travels every year to Costa Rica to immerse herself in Pura Vida, which means “pure life” and is their country motto. She was invited recently to join a new program at La Selva Biological Station on the Caribbean slope to consider a position of natural history and nature guiding. While spending four weeks in that country, she stayed in three different areas (including the Caribbean slope and the Osa Peninsula) while enjoying close encounters with a large variety of beautiful birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and insects. All these encounters are in the wild and not in captivity. She is taking this opportunity during Art Walk to share her images.
Meet our artists during Art Walk. July 4, 5 to 8 pm.
Light refreshments are served.
Margaret Woodcock
Margaret Woodcok, the flora partner, is presenting new mixed media paintings/ drawings that utilize soft pastel, charcoal, ink, oil, and cold wax medium as well as collage on paper and wood panels. Two themes emerge in these new works: growth and vitality in nature and a sense of habitat.
With these new works, Woodcock is exploring how the different materials can work together to form a coherent image and take advantage of their inherent qualities, for example, the softness of the pastel contrasting the intense black or white of the fluid ink line or the layering of cold wax medium with oil over line or marks to achieve a depth of color or atmosphere. Her goal but to connect the character of the medium with the expressiveness of the floral, plant, or tree forms with her own creative response to nature. At times, Margaret also adds collage elements with the other medium, carefully cutting or tearing paper images, animal/bird forms, landscapes, graphic elements like maps, handwritten notes, music, or charts as well as color or texture letting suggested relationships and queries emerge like a lively visual poem.