Margaret Niven

Future Memory
When I walk from my studio into nearby native forests, I enter a world of light and shadow. Under the canopy, I am mesmerized by dappled light. Returning to the studio, I use photographs captured on my walks as source material for oil paintings, drawings and photo-based prints. Through them, I discover my enchantment with the forest is deeply colored by my anguish for the future of the trees.

The knowledge of climate change enters my studio with the anticipation of loss. My work is a visual commentary on climate change. The loss of color from areas of the forest represents a loss of green space in the broader sense. Gray areas fall away from chromatic areas as if they are receding or advancing into a place and time that lie ahead, down the path or through the trees. It is not far away.

Shadows and Traces
Most color is gone from these images. What remains are values of gray and brown. Like in over exposed photographs, the light is intense and in high contrast to the structure of the trees and shadows.

Eden
The greens of the forest are replaced by hot oranges, yellows and reds in a vivid reaction to recent fires that have ravaged our coastal landscape.

Coastal Trees
Paintings, prints and drawings of images collected on my routine walks in the forests of the central California coast.