04-39 Small Fruit and Large Leaves 2004 18 x 24 1/2 inches Pastel

April 26, 2011

Margaret Nes

Embracing life’s ever changing climates, being free from complexity, intricacy, and division, Margaret Nes has discovered inspirations in the grains of the earth. Nes has accepted the marvels of life which have inspired all of her pastel paintings; her unique and creative style is usually inspired from beyond the limits of perception, where she discovers a sense of faith for art allowing her to keep going.

Rooted in the richness of culture, landscape and art, Paris, France was the birth place of Margaret Nes (1950), daughter of American Foreign Service professionals. Margaret’s artistic seed was planted in Paris, to be shortly watered after.

Margaret and family lived in several places in North Africa- including Egypt, Libya, and Morocco. Margaret developed the ability to view the indigenous aspect of earth’s architecture, and desert like landscape. Margaret was raised in a home that recognized the quality, magnitude, and significance of art. Photos, painting and other artistic works followed the family throughout their travels. Most of this art was created from the craftsmanship of Margaret’s mother who received the art from the maternal grandmother- a California photographer and painter. Margaret’s father’s side of the family also contributed to their collection.

Margaret moved with her aunt and uncle at 15 years of age to Maryland for boarding school. It was here that Margaret was introduced to pastels and the fundamentals of art. Visiting with her grandmother in California in 1968 Margaret planned to enroll in Boston University College of Fine Arts. Nes’ plans changed once she fell in love with California’s culture, values and morals that ran counter to those of the established society. Margaret discovered strong unbearable emotions at 17 year of age for singing, playing the guitar, travel and music, which still remain to be influential in Margaret’s life (Creevy 1999).

Margaret went with a group of her peers to New Mexico; here she connected with the cultures and traditions of the aged Hispanic and Native people who had maintained their societies. Margaret was comforted with the familiarities that reminded her of home in North Africa. Mountainous areas streamed the desert of north New Mexico. Traveling through villages Margaret’s eyes landed on the landscape that included adobe architecture, the excessively dry air and the light that was not distracted. Finding a home in the emerging hippie culture Nes moved to Lama Mountain, north of Taos, New Mexico, which became a suitable place for an artist and other enthusiast, where she lived for almost 30 years (Wildlife Art 2003).

Nes and husband Bob Aldo (a musician), their own two-story log home, that sat on top of a mountain bordered by the bountiful and brilliant landforms that created a serene environment. Full of curiosity and wonder, Nes was able to gather a passion that motivated her creative process through their luminous surroundings and the creation of their home, that Nes and husband Aldo crafted by hand.

Nes breaths life into her pastel paintings by captivating moments from her own personal journeys, Nes states that “it is her way to explore the physical world and her own internal world, to find where these meet in the universality of existence.”

A six series collection titled Mother Vase was created by Nes, each vase in respect of her mother’s four daughters and two grandsons. The idea of the Mother Vase continuation began when Nes’ mother was dying and a friend brought over an odd shaped vase with flowers, these same flowers continued to blossom until her mothers passing. In recognition of Nes’ mother’s life, she designed a vase with symbolic hues of green against a blue background (The World & I 1995).

Nes’ work is attractive because of her relationship to the familiar, that reaches out and seizing her attention. Through her work, Nes is able to create seamless transitions; her paintings describe a different perspective of life’s simpler beauties. Nes captures this by using a wide range of subject matter- landscape, portraits, still life, and architecture.

At age 58, aesthetically Nes exposes herself, known for incorporating sculptural works, blended with the use of soft-edges, sumptuous curves, rooflines, angles, which are designed by mood and evolve into abstract forms. Her palette ranges from the richest and most luminous of hues to the most subtle and delicate of shades. Nes benefits consciously with the way she details her work in color. She uses red and green to create brightness that would not be obvious. Nes has the ability to control what the brain sees and uses complimentary colors that make the painting more brilliant and interesting, through the visual interest, dynamic range and texture.

Collections of Nes’ work can be found in the Wilder Nightingale Fine Art, Hahn Ross Gallery, Michael McCormick Gallery, and Dartmouth St. Gallery all located in New Mexico. Connect with the channels of the world’s matrix as Nes has- ascertain, share, relate, communicate beyond verbal language and as Nes would say “move, dance, live and love,” (Simone 1993).