(Margaret Shipman
Paintings of Wild Plants, Medicinal Herbs, and Plant Folklore
There are wild things that grow in the most unassuming of places, like between the old stones of a crumbling wall, along sun-dappled roadsides, or in the garden beds our grandmothers once tended. These are not hothouse flowers or plants of pedigree, but brave, persistent little green things with stories stitched into their stems.
Long ago, people knew them by names born of intimacy and observation: coffeeweed, scotchbriar, white man’s footprint, bloodwort. They brewed them into teas when children coughed at night, crushed their leaves for poultices, and collected them again and again each summer as insurance against illness. These familiar plants were friends, guides, and healers.
But in our age of hurry and paved-over wonder, we’ve forgotten this relationship. The wildflowers grow every summer, all the same, waiting for someone to reclaim the ancient bond.
So that is what I am trying do. I am trying to re-learn the stories and medicines on behalf of us all.
With each painting, I come to know these plants not just by name, but by story. My work hopefully becomes a bridge between the forgotten knowledge of the past and the bustling beauty of the present. It is my way of listening to old wisdom and of answering. It is, I suppose, a kind of remembering.
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My work is oil on canvas, sometimes with collaged elements of painted resin paper added.
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BIO
Margaret Shipman is a painter inspired by the folklore, cultural history, and natural beauty of wild plants, medicinal herbs, and often-overlooked landscapes. She creates vibrant, intricate paintings that honor ancestral knowledge and the enduring relationships between humans and the natural world.
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​With degrees in both art and anthropology, Margaret started out working for organizations seeking to help improve the lives of indigenous artists in US tribal communities and abroad. Then for the last two decades, she worked within arts organizations in Southern Vermont. Now as a full-time artist, Margaret can usually be found painting in her home studio which is surrounded by the wildflowers and woods that influence her work.
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Margaret’s paintings have been exhibited throughout the Northeast and are available through galleries, art fairs, and directly from her studio. She is the co-creator of The Wayfarer Tarot and is currently collaborating with Tarot reader and teacher Stacy Salpietro-Babb on a second deck.
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Press:
CanvasRebel, October 2024, Stories and Insights: Meet Margaret Shipman
Brattleboro Reformer, September 2020, Adding Something Different, Kris Radder
Vermont Winter Vacation Guide 2017, Love Where You Live
The Commons, February 24, 2016, Drawing a Crowd, Richard Henke
The Commons, February 10, 2016, Shipman Paintings on Display at Amy's
Southern Vermont Art & Living, Winter 2013 - 2014, The Art/Life Balance, Arlene Distler
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Finalist Collectors' Recognition 2024, Paradise City Arts Festival
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photo by Kris Radder of the Brattleboro Reformer.
Underpinning my art is the need to establish a connection with the land.
I'm seeking to understand the workings of the ecology of the landscape as well as human history with nature.
My paintings are of wild plants, herbs, and pollinators. They are also about folklore and the interrelationship between nature and humans. Small bits of wisdom, poetry, and practical advice are written among the busy-ness of my designs.
Respect for the interconnectedness of the natural world as well as our own relationship with it is important to my own journey, and grows for me with every painting.