“Margaret Lockwood: Painted Spaces” Opens at the Fairfield

“The Strength Within II, ” Trees Series, by Margaret Lockwood.

On Thursday, July 3, the Fairfield Art Center in historic downtown Sturgeon Bay will unveil “Margaret Lockwood: Painted Spaces” in its first-floor Main Gallery. The exhibition will open with a free reception from 6:30 – 8 pm that will include wine and hors d’oeuvres, and the renowned Door County-based artist will be on hand to visit with guests and discuss her work.

“Painted Spaces” comprises atmospheric landscapes, in three series that explore themes of trees, water and clouds. As in all of Lockwood’s work, the play of light and color in each of these paintings gives the minimal subject matter an ethereal, almost dreamlike feel.

“My constant desire is to paint canvases that create the feeling of space. Color relationships, layers of atmosphere and rhythmic interludes are my tools,” Lockwood explains. “I want each work to gently welcome viewers to enter into a peaceful place, within the painting and within themselves.”

“Triumph,” Clouds Series, by Margaret Lockwood.

These works also have a powerful, and deeply poignant, resonance in real life for Lockwood. As the three series – Trees, Water and Clouds – took shape, Lockwood lost three people dear to her. She says she was in the middle of painting the Trees series last fall when her mother, Helen, suddenly passed away.

“My biggest fan, her last words to me were, ‘Your paintings make me weep,’” Lockwood recalls. “Her spirit painted with me through the rest of the Trees series, and so I dedicate lovingly the Trees room to her.”

With Trees complete, she began painting a couple of pieces for the Clouds series. Then her brother-in-law, Roger, lost his battle with brain cancer.

“(Since he was) a middle-aged Deadhead and a brilliant scientist, at his memorial service we all sang the Grateful Dead song ‘Ripple’ – ‘Ripple in still water when there is no pebble tossed nor wind to blow…’” Lockwood says.

So emerged the Water series. And then she painted more Clouds.

“Ripple,” Water Series, by Margaret Lockwood.

“This room I dedicate to my father, Fred, whom I have always looked up to for his combination of strong intelligence and gentle inclusiveness,” she notes. “As he died this spring, I told him, ‘The Clouds are for you, Dad.’”

Lockwood says that the “Painted Spaces” exhibition celebrates the lives of all three, and it has offered her a chance to express her love for them by filling the Fairfield’s galleries with, as she puts it, her own “painted spaces.”

In conjunction with her new exhibition, Lockwood will conduct a slide presentation and artists’ talk in the Fairfield Art Center’s Main Gallery at 6:30 pm on Thursday, July 24. “Margaret Lockwood: Painted Spaces” will run through Saturday, August 16.

The Fairfield Art Center is open free to the public from 10 am – 5 pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 10 am – 8 pm Thursday; and 10 am – 4 pm Saturday. For more information call 920.746.0001, email [email protected] or visit http://www.fairfieldcenter.org.