The exhibition “Voices of the Land” features paintings in a representational and post-impressionistic style concentrating on the inspiration Margaret acquires from the back roads, where her soul-filling creativity blooms. The paintings are born where life has slowed to a snail’s pace and lines of weathered fence posts, one after another stand securely as generations of her past. Exploring the land, meeting the people and experiencing the daily “grind” instills determination, courage and perseverance. Her works echo these feelings through broad strokes, bold colors and big skies like a passion for the land of past generations.
Margaret’s passion and appreciation for the land is brought to these creations, through generations of farmers as far back as her Great Great Great Grandparents John and Margaret Shea. Her grandparents emigrated to the states in the 1840’s. He mined for a short period and then purchased beautiful black farm land in Northern Illinois where he and Margaret settled. The home they built still stands 170 years later as a monument to his Irish determination
