Craftsmanship

Margie Prim

 
Featured Artist - Click here for this artist's online gallery

Ms. Prim began her art career in the 1960’s in Oklahoma by taking painting lessons.  She laid her brushes aside until the early 1990’s, when she again took painting lessons, this time from Walt Lewis and at the Stan Nossett Art School. 

Margie continued her studies through her memberships in the Minnetrista Art Guild and the Indiana Plein Air Painters.  Where many artists work from sketches or photographs in the comfort of their studio, plein air painters specifically work outside, on location, to create their paintings. Prim is adept in both methods. 

Margie began entering juried exhibitions, and has shown in the Minnetrista Annual, the Richmond Art Museum Annual, Indiana State Fair, the Women’s Commission Art Exhibit, Retail Conservancy Open Spaces Exhibit, and the Hoosier Salon. 

She has won awards at several exhibits and held several one woman exhibits in the region. Her plein air work was included in the Indiana Waterways Project in 2002, which culminated in a book.

 Traditional in subject matter with an active and expressive surface, Prim’s paintings of fruit, onions, barns, bridges and rivers capture the viewer with aggressive color and heavy impasto.  Impressionistic in style, the dabs of paint give a lively energy to the serenity of the landscapes and still lifes.  A few of the paintings include figures, but most simply allow the viewer to become the human element in a peaceful scene of autumn colors across farm fields and woods, streams and quiet cottages or corner cafe.

Prim is a feature artist at Gordy Fine Art and Framing Company in downtown Muncie, Indiana.

Artist Statement                                                    Spring 2009

Inspiration for my paintings comes from street scenes in towns and places I see in the country, where I pull off to the side the road.  I believe these places will soon be torn down, or turned into residential areas, so painting them is like putting a little history down onto my canvas.  I use a painting knife, rather than brushes, to put paint onto my canvases in a rather flat application, and hope viewers will enjoy the finished work as much as I enjoyed painting the scene.