“The Midwest landscape has surrounded me all my life, first in Ohio, then in Iowa. I delight in showing with my paintings that Iowa is anything but boring, as many people perceive it to be. Each month of the year I find a subtle beauty that I never tire of exploring. The most exciting aspect of any landscape is the quality of the light that illuminates the natural and man made forms. The drama can be heightened by the way the light, and thus the shadows, are depicted. Pastels lend themselves to developing the ephemeral aspects of light and color in the landscape. I enjoy challenging myself in constantly finding new ways to explore the forms, rhythm, lines, repetition, light and color in the Iowa landscape. The sky is a very important element in all my paintings. Observing the light, color and forms in the sky throughout the day, and the year, has become a very major part of my discipline as an artist. Since I work totally from photographs I have taken, I have the liberty to pair any sky with any land. A change in the sky has the potential to change an ordinary landscape into something of breathtaking beauty.
Nature’s possibilities are endless.” Marcia Wegman grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and was interested in art from an early age. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a major in graphic design from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, in 1961. For fifteen years Wegman worked with her husband to establish a retail store and raised two children, but in 1977 a drawing and watercolor class returned her to art. She experimented with a variety of media, however it was a walking trip in the Lake District of England that inspired her to try pastel. It has become her primary medium for its immediacy and directness in capturing the essence of light. Wegman works entirely from photographs she takes along Iowa country roads. She often combines elements of two or three photographs into a single work.
Columbus, Ohio, is where I grew up. Art was my major at Miami University of Ohio where I received a BFA Magna Cum Laude with a major in graphic design. I wanted to pursue printmaking so chose the University of Iowa for their highly regarded printmaking department. After three years and an MFA in printmaking, I never did another print but continued to live in Iowa City. My former husband and I started a little antique/gift shop which grew into a multilevel small specialized department store. This took my time and energy for quite a few years during which I did no art. When I returned to pursuing my interest in art I worked in many different mediums, watercolor, acrylic, metal and paper collage, hand made paper art and jewelry, and mixed media collage. It wasn’t until 1999 that I discovered the joys of working in pastel. By that time we had closed the store so I was able to devote full time to making and marketing my art.
Figurative and landscape subjects have always been my primary interest whether abstract or realistic. The Iowa landscape in all seasons has now become my passion. Light, color, patterns and specifics of place and season are what I look for when I drive the country roads with my camera. I enjoy the comforts of my studio, listening to books while working, and working in short intense spurts of time thus making reference photos a necessity. I often use several different photos for one painting, feeling free to make any changes to enhance the composition. It gives me enormous satisfaction to be able to paint the unique beauty of the rich Iowa country and to be able to help people see it in a different way.
Website
http://www.marciawegman.com
