Artist Profile – Margaret McLennand

This is part of a series about artists within the Outdoor and SnowSports industries who create art outside of their day jobs.

Margaret McLennand considers herself a self-taught artist, though at Penn State she studied graphic arts and painting before settling on a major in art history.  Like so many art majors, her daily work does not involve making art, though she says that she and her family “live artistically every day.”

McLennand has a busy life between taking care of her family, her garden and her job as Assistant Product Developer at Eastern Mountain Sports in Peterborough, N.H. When she has time to paint, she says that she “mostly explores the paint.  I love to get lost in what I am doing. The hours go by without a thought.” She works in both acrylics and watercolors and keeps track of her ideas in a sketch journal.

While working on the road in the mid-90’s as a sales rep, Margaret frequented old diners and became fascinated with salt & pepper and sugar shakers and began painting and sketching them.

In 1997 Margaret and her family took their first trip to Hawaii. She fell in love with the islands and has visited many times since. Hawaiian and vintage fabric and bamboo influences are seen in her paintings.

“The history of art fascinates me as you can get ahead of new ideas by looking to the past.  Don’t wallow in the past, let it inspire and invigorate your mind,” says McLennand.

To see more artist profiles click here.

I will be blogging about more artists within the Outdoor & SnowSports industries in the upcoming weeks. The criteria is that they work within these industries, and that they don’t make art as part of their full-time job. If you are an artist or know someone who is, please drop me a line.

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