margaret@margaretbiggs.com
www.margaretbiggs.com

July was a busy month for us! Over the first 2 weeks, we gathered together 8 sold paintings from collectors who gave me consent to offer them as fine art prints. We then had them professionally photographed and they are
now available to you with an additional
15% off all prints through Labor Day!


For the last two weeks of July, we flew to Europe to visit family in Berlin. It was great fun seeing Jordan's granddaughter Ophelia and her parents. We spent a lot of time biking around and seeing the sites. Such an interesting city! Back in the mid eighties I traveled to East Berlin before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The concrete barrier divided the city from 1961 to 1989. It's fall was a pivotal moment in history which marked the falling of The Iron Curtain. The difference in the city cannot be described. In 1984 it was drab and gray with evidence of the severe damage of WWII everywhere one looked. Soldiers with automatic weapons were never far. And Now? Wow! How far they have come. The people, the restaurants, museums and shops! The care of the historical monuments! It is fascinating! 

  From there I traveled solo to Paris where I met my German friend Sybilla, who I shared a studio with at The Mauser House Artist Residency in Costa Rica in 2019. Her sensual, mysterious paintings can be viewed on Instagram @billebilla_fineart. It was my first time to Paris in over 30 years!  Four days were spent mostly admiring art at The Musee D'Orsay, the Louvre,
The Musee de L'Orangerie and the Centre Pompidou.

The Musee D'Orsay I visited twice...there was so much I wanted to see. Located in an old train station on the Left Bank of the Seine, it's architecture alone is worth the visit! The collection is mostly French, created between 1848 to 1914. It is home to paintings by Van Gogh, Manet, Gaugin,
Renoir and so many more great masters! 

 The L'Orangerie was my favorite when I lived there. Located in Tuileries Gardens, the collection of Impressionist and Post Impressionists works is not large, yet it includes the works of Mondrian, Picasso, Cezanne, Matisse and others. In the 80's, Monet's eight Water Lily Murals had not yet been installed. As I entered each oval shaped gallery, the murals literally took my breath away!  It was absolutely incredible.

Again I boarded a train and headed for Geneva where I met a fellow student in the  meditation teachers training class I am taking. Geneva is a beautiful city! Full of swans, Lake Geneva was exceptionally clear and the mountains grace the far shore. The work of one of my all time favorite artists, Ferdinand Hodler can be found at the Musee d'Art d' Histoire.  He is one of the best known Swiss painters of the 19th century. I was blown away by his mountain scapes and large figures of women.  Such an inspiration he is to me! For more on his work click the button below and let me know if you see how he inspires me! 

https://www.wikiart.org/en/ferdinand-hodler

Summer Sale through Labor Day Sept. 6th! 
15% Off all Prints!

 

 

The unbroken shell of the lightning whelk is treasured by collectors and can be found along the U.S. coast from North Carolina to Texas.          At maturity, her shell can reach a length of 16”.
 
Little more than 3” long, this broken lightening whelk would have been left lying in the sand by most beachcombers.
Broken and faded by the sun, her life was not long.

Yet what this sea snail left in her short life is a gift. It is a reminder of the beauty that is within most everyone no matter what their physical characteristics may be, no matter their disabilities or how “broken” they may have become.

As is often the case while I paint,  “She Sings” took on a life of her own. Painted in the vertical position, she seemed to be singing, the leaves and tiny balls of the Sargassum seaweed, dancing to her song.