September 2002
Artist of the Month:
Margaret McCrary-Anderson
Visual Artist
(732) 463-0134 margander@aol.com
Margaret McCrary Anderson has always been interested in art -since she saw what magic she could do with crayons when she was little. She majored in art and received her B.F.A. from Women's College of the University of North Carolina and received her M.A. degree in art at Columbia University. She also did postgraduate work at the Mason Gross School of the Arts in New Brunswick, NJ.

Margaret became an elementary art teacher, a career she pursued for 38 years. Marriage and two children diminished her output but she always drew or painted. Her drawing books went with her to meetings - everywhere.

Her influence at the University of North Carolina was abstract expressionism. Don't look for gloomy prognostications in her abstract work. You will discover joy in the dancing colored circles and forms in her abstract paintings.

Trips to Maine created an interest in the charming Maine harbors and flowers, flowers, flowers.

The New Jersey shore, the Delware River and Raritan Canal, and Lake Nelson in Piscataway, NJ, where she lives, are scenic interests for her work. Her love of sheer form and color from her abstract expressionism influence is evident in her flower paintings, even in paintings of houses.

Delight in what she sees is always evident in her work - whether done in colored pencil, watercolor, gouache, and acrylic, tempura or oil.

Margaret has exhibited at the Munson Gallery, New Haven, CT; the Ceres Gallery, New York City; the International Wild Fowl Show, Ocean City, MD and at local shows in New Jersey. She is a past member of the Printmaking Council of Hunterdon County and a member of the Suburban Artists' Guild, the Somerset Art Association, the Morris County Art Association, and Associate Member of the Essex Water Color Club and the Garden State Watercolor Society, as well as the Edison Arts Society. She has won awards for both her prints and painted decoys. Her paintings are in a number of private collections.