Question 1

What is the writing in your paintings?

Accepted Answer

I like to cultivate the look of old herbal notebooks and grimoires with handwritten text around an illustration of a plant.

I don't include text in all of my paintings. Sometimes I add just a little, like when I add text giving the common names of the plants. And sometimes there is a lot of text, in these paintings I include notes about their uses in herbal medicine, folklore, stories and songs, and  old magical practices.

I'm interested in learning all that I can about our relationship with herbs, wildflowers, and history of places. I hope to recreate the bond that our ancestors enjoyed with the natural world in my own small way.

Question 2

How long does it take to complete a painting?

Accepted Answer

This is tough to answer for a lot of reasons:

• I work on a few paintings at once.  I go back and forth between them for days or weeks.

• I'm really slow in comparison to other artists. Though I have a degree in art, I still consider myself to be mostly self taught. The professors at my college did not teach technique in any of my studio painting classes, I suspect that they didn't want to hamper our creativity by giving us rules to follow. As a result, I have had to come up with my own way of painting. I think its closer to drawing with paint than it is to painting like other artists do. I also think this has made me a slower painter than others. 
 • I could also say that it has taken me my whole life as an artist to make one painting, because building the skills to paint should be taken into consideration for each painting. But I would never actually say that because it would be a really annoying answer. :)

• I don't equate time spent on a painting as determining its value or success. I think that sometimes the paintings that I make the most easily can be more successful than the ones I labor over for a long time.

Question 3

What is your medium?

Accepted Answer

My paintings are oil on canvas. I also add small collage elements to many paintings that are oil on resin paper, which I cut out and collage onto the the painting. Sometimes I secure them by sewing these on, and sometimes I use collage glue.

(Margaret Shipman

[Frequently asked questions)