Today we’d like to introduce you to Margaret “Maggie” McCarthy.
Hi Maggie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I earned my English education degree from UMSL in ’69 but I always loved working with my hands and doing art. My husband’s job as a meteorologist with the National Weather Service moved us all over—Maine, Indiana, St. Louis (our hometown), Oklahoma, Kansas City, Silver Spring Md at Weather Service headquarters, then he retired to St. Louis. In our time in Oklahoma, I earned my BFA in Painting 1995 from OU in Norman, OK. Once the last of our 4 children entered college I began in earnest showing my work. My favorite medium is watercolor but I also work in oil and pencil. I was gratified to receive awards in juried shows and competitions from Kansas to Maryland and have been an invited speaker and judge for several Missouri and Kansas art associations and shows. I served as co-director for the Art Fair at Queeny Park, Ballwin, MO, from 2009 until 2023. In addition to art fairs and shows, I enjoy teaching watercolor and drawing and currently focus on lessons in my home studio and workshops. My husband was my biggest supporter serving as photographer to document my work, muscle for my art shows, and computer genius. He died from complications from covid in 2023 just before he was to get his covid booster shot. We had 52 wonderful years but still not enough. Without him I can do 2 or 3 shows a year instead of 8-10. My love of watercolor began as a young mother. It was easy set up and tear down and I fell in love with it.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Smooth is not really a word I would use but it was a gradual process. My husband’s job was rotating shift work early on and then later whenever the weather was bad he was at the office. I needed to be the anchor with the kids so I did not pursue a full time English teaching job until the last one was in 6th grade. I did do some substitute teaching. During that at -home -Mom time, I took community art classes and private lessons. I loved it. I remember once talking to my husband and saying I wonder what I’ll do when I grow up -meaning when the kids are all at school all day. I then said to him, “I want to paint and have someone buy my paintings.” It was such a good thing to put words to my dreams and back it up with the art classes and lessons. When we left St. Louis to go to Norman, OK, I was just devasted to leave but this was really our future and I was on board. I was having a rough day missing home and Den said let’s go down and sign you up to get that Art Degree you always wanted. Wow! game changer! I loved it. Our oldest daughter was a freshman at OU and our youngest was 8 years old. The 2 boys were high school and middle school. So we were All going to school. And chasing all the sports stuff, soccer, volleyball, church stuff that most parents do. I got my art degree in ’95 and we were in Norman for 5 more years. I did teach full time for 2 years before Den’s job moved us to Kansas City. Kansas City is where I pursued my art full time.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
When I was at OU there were no instructors in watercolor so I worked in oil. I learned so much at OU– content, color, and composition. The art history classes were amazing. I took life drawing, painting, silk screen printing, lithography, and ceramics. I was just over 40 when I began my OU classes. Everyone else was so young but after 2 weeks we were all just students trying to figure all this out. Landscape, trees, nature were and still are my main content. We could not do anything smaller than 3′ x 4′. I was thrilled when the OU magazine featured one of my large, probably 5′ x 5′ leaf paintings on the cover promoting the student show. When I finished my art degree, I went back to my watercolors and continued my love of nature. I still enjoy oil but my main focus is watercolor. I paint from places I have been or my imagination, always open to what the watercolor has to say. Watercolor is a challenging medium. It is supposed to look like it just happens but it takes a good plan, a confident hand, and flexibility always open to what the watercolor has to say. It is like a teenager — if you overcontrol it, it will rebel. I am always pleased and gratified when I win award and it happens often enough to give me confidence. I have an art student who says, “Maggie, how do you get such wonderful paintings from such ordinary photos?” Such a wonderful compliment. I tell her I take several photos and sketches to remind me what was there, then I do a value study to reveal the composition to me-editing, changing, adding, taking out, all to make a good composition. Only then do I paint, always remembering what inspired me about the scene in the first place. Patrons tells me my paintings are so soothing and have such feeling. That’s my goal.
What’s next?
When I lost my husband in ’23 I really did not paint much for almost a year. I always painted from my joy and from our adventures together. He loved nature as much as I do. He took incredible cloud photography. He even did a few shows and competitions, even winning some awards. I always knew I had to get the clouds right or he would tell me. I always took my own photos for source material. Each artist has their own unique vision. I try to hammer that home to my students. I don’t want them to be carbon copies of me; they need to be who they are and use their own experiences and photos or flowers or still life. My art students continue to go to me and gradually the joy is returning. I know he would want me to paint.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.maggiemccarthy.com
