Background and Progression of the Life of Maggie Neale
Color has always been important to me. I was making crayon drawings before I could talk, painted through school, and was awarded Outstanding Artist in high school. With a BFA from Bowling Green State University, Ohio, I taught art, established an art gallery in Michigan, and studied watercolor with Kagi Aso in Boston.
In 1976 my husband and I came to Chelsea, VT to raise our family. There I joined two other women to establish a weaving studio, which took us on the craft fair circuit. With the children grown, I moved to Montpelier to work with the group running Artisans Hand Craft Gallery, which continues to be my vocation. In 1995 I studied silk painting and created Color Musings, a successful business of hand painted silks/hangings, which have been exhibited in the Vermont Supreme Court in 2002 and 2006. Cofounding Studio Place Arts, a community art canter in 1999, I returned to painting on canvas. These paintings have been exhibited in many venues in Vermont.
In 2004 I painted in Mexico where I learned the Mexican form of encaustic. With this body of work I have had several solo exhibits in Vermont and in Prescott, AZ.
My work, in both silks and oils, is mainly abstract as I am exploring my evolution and forms of expression of life's journey. I am interested in exploring textures, layers, and what lies below the surface. My forms are simplified color fields in complex hues with energy and movement captured. This breath within the painting keeps the colors invigorated and active. Color can be healing and my hope is that these paintings, whether on silk or canvas, find ways to enhance the lives of many others.