As part of a local environmental week, Nature in Art is showing a selection of paintings by Meg Stevens that are part of Nature in Art’s collection and were last shown in their entirety in 2017.
They are from a remarkable collection of paintings all done in situ by Meg Stevens in and around the Brecons, where she lived. She could be found out in all weather capturing the wild places she loved. These pictures in particular, highlight the flowers in their habitat.
In talking about the series, Meg said: ‘When I find bits (of land) where wild flowers grow plentifully, I want to celebrate. All art makes a statement of some kind about something experienced, emotionally or physically. It may be a proclamation or a protest, a poem or a political statement. I think mine are a sort of celebration’.
However, capturing those celebrations was sometimes a struggle! Meg much preferred painting out of doors taking her equipment out into the countryside on her bicycle. She said, ‘If I find myself painting in places where I almost have to cling on with my teeth, it’s because these are often the only places left where wild flowers can grow in profusion – the way they are meant to be seen.’ Meg went on to say, ‘Every picture is a fight. It wouldn’t be worthwhile, I suppose, if it weren’t. One suffers cold, heat, stiff neck, tennis elbow. Brolly springs a leak, blows away. Easel collapses. Seeds in one’s socks and prickles in one’s pullover! …… I can’t decide if it’s me fighting to find how to say it or the picture fighting to get itself said. That they do get themselves somehow said is not a tribute to my skill but to the beauty which, in spite of all that we do to our environment, insists on breaking out wherever it finds the smallest chance.’