Meg Shields

"Painting for me is a primitive drive."

Meg Shields

Meg Shields, Early Morning, oil painting on panel

Early Morning, oil on panel, 10 x 10

Meg Shields "Jonquils"

Jonquilds, oil on board, 12 x 9

Meg Shields, 2010 show

2010 "White Room" installation

Meg Shields

Helen Flies to Boston, oil on board, 14 x 18 (sold)

Mt. Gilboa, oil on board, 11.5 x 12

Spring Night, oil on board, 11.5 x 7

Pine, Night, oil on board, 9 x 6

Spring, Rt. 87, oil on board, 7 x 7.25

Checkerboard Tanks, oil on board, 8 x 8

Winter, oil on board, 8 x 13.5

Black Pond, February, oil on board, 8 x 8.5

Fairhaven Tower, oil on board, 8 x 8

Water Towers, Provincetown, oil on board, 7.75 x 7.75 (sold)

Moon Rising, oil on board, 9 x 9.5

Thunderstorm, oil on board, 8 x 13.5

Meg Shields Studio

Meg's studio, spring 2010

Artist's Statement

Painting for me is a primitive drive. From earliest remembered child hood I have been compelled by color and the space of the visible world. Though I paint in response to ideas, these are ideas about concrete things like color, shape, materials, textures, as well as a curiosity about how something in the world actually looks, and how that looking can be made out of paint.

I don't try to know anything when I'm working on a painting, except in these terms. In addition to working from observation I make improvisatatory abstraction, and images from memory. I find that the motive force of making non-representational work can only be found in the moment of applying paint, whereas with paintings about subject matter there is the added impetus of drawing and responding to a set of spatial relationships already determined upon. Underlying both are the demands of creating satisfying rhythm and color harmony.

My work is highly personal and impulsive; it has been a great joy to me to develop skill in drawing and color in order to create a substantial bridge for my ideas to make their way in to the world. Simply put I like to paint things I see, much as I like to see things. Painting things I see gives me a way to paint things I can't see. -- Meg Shields

Bio

I was born in Boston in 1953, the eldest of six children. I attended public schools, then Brandeis University. Dropping out after one semester, and attending classes at the De Cordova Museum, I then went to Vassar College in 1972. I spent a semester at Wellesley College in 1975 then returned to Vassar, graduating in 1976.

I earned a Masters from University College, Dublin, Ireland in 1978, and moved to Wellfleet in 1979, earning my living in aquaculture. In 1987 I graduated from Massachusetts College of Art with a BFA in Painting.

I received a Pollack-Krasner Foundation Award in 1997 and have been showing at Fischbach Gallery since 1999, as well as at numerous galleries on Cape Cod.

I was an adjunct instructor in Painting at Cape Cod Community College from 2003 through 2008.

I have served as a mentor to graduate students in the Fine Arts Work Center/ MassArt MFA program and presently teach at Provincetown Art Association and Museum.

I have been married to Glenn Shields since 1981. He grows oysters in Wellfleet.

EDUCATION

1987 BFA Painting, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA

1978 MA Anglo-Irish Literature, University College, Dublin, Ireland

1976 BA English Literature, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY

AWARDS

1998 Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant

1991 Cummington Community for the Arts, Residency

1989 Honors and Distinction, Massachusetts College of Art

1976 Maguire Fellowship, Vassar College

SELECTED SOLO SHOWS

2010 Gallery Ehva, Provincetown, MA

2007 "In Particular" Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY

2007 "Five Easy Pieces" Wellfleet Public Library, Wellfleet, MA

2004 William Scott Gallery, Provincetown, MA

2003 "Landmarks" Fischbach Gallery 210 11 th Avenue, New York, NY,"

1999 "New Work" Fischbach Gallery

1993 Shields/Perkins Studio, Wellfleet, MA

1990 Wellfleet Fine Art Gallery

1988 Walters Gallery, Regis College, Weston, MA

1986 Thompson Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art. Boston, MA

TEACHING

2009 Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Painting

2006-07 Mentor, Low -residency MFA, Fine Arts Work Center & Mass. College of Art

2003-08 Provincetown Art Association and Museum School , Painting Adjunct Faculty, Cape Cod Community College, Painting

1991 Cape Cod Museum of Fine Arts, Dennis, MA, Painting

1990 Castle Hill Center for the Arts, Truro, MA, Painting

SELECTED GROUP SHOWS

2010 Gallery Ehva, Provinvetown, MA

2009 Faculty Show, Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM), MA

"Paper Jam" ArtStrand, Provincetown, MA

Rice-Polak Gallery, Provincetown, MA

"Blessings" Gallery Ehva, Provincetown, MA

2007 "Uovo Spectrum" Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY

2007 Faculty Show, PAAM, Provincetown, MA

2006 Bryant Street Gallery , Palo Alto ,CA

Faculty Show, Cape Cod Community College, Barnstable. MA

2005 Faculty Show. PAAM

2004 "Small Worlds" Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY

2003 "Lighter Than Air" Fischbach Gallery

2001 Gallery Artists, Fischbach Gallery

2000 "Y2K" Fischbach Gallery

1999 "Wet Paint" Fischbach Gallery

1998 Julie Heller Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Drawing Invitational, PAAM, Provincetown

Women Creating, (invitational), Cahoon Museum of Art. Cotuit, MA

"Trees" PAAM, Curated by Hayden Herrara

1997 Rising Tide Gallery, Provincetown, MA

1995 Hoorn-Ashby Gallery, Nantucket, MA

1994 Left Bank Gallery, Wellfleet, MA

1993-92 Shields/Perkins Studio, Wellfleet, MA

1991-90 Wellfleet Fine Art Gallery, Wellfleet, MA

1989 Kendall Gallery, Wellfleet, MA

1986 "Fine Art at Mass Art" Juried show, Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama

1981 "Young Artists" Juried show, Provincetown Art Association and Museum

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2007 Naves, Mario, "Quiet Skill" New Yok Observer, September 25, 2007

2007 Leggio, Gail, "Singing Shapes ", American Arts Quarterly, Vol. 24, Number 4, Fall

2003 Naves, Mario, "Mystery, Majesty -Not Magic- Illuminate Portentous Realism", New York Observer, March 3rd , 2003

2003 "Landmarks Show Reveals Enduring Strength at Fischbach" Antiques and Arts Weekly, February 14, 2003

2000 New American Paintings, Terrie Sultan Juror, March 2000

1999 Naves, Mario, "In Defying Gravity Meg Shields Finds Magic , New York Observer, October 11 th , 1999

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Siobhan Cuffe, Dublin, Ireland

Tracy Edwards, Boston, MA

Susan Greene, Chicago, IL

Kathy and Harry Hagendorf, Jr., New York, NY

Robert Hrebek, New Jersey

Dianne Keitt, New York, NY

William Boraczek, New York, NY

Mr. And Mrs. Marvin Lender, New York, NY

Alex Richie, New York, NY and Provincetown, MA

Katherine Gormley, Cambridge, MA

Diana Worthington, Truro, MA

Gip Hoppe and Beverly Callistini, Wellfleet, MA

Florence Phillips, Cos Cob, CT

Karen Imperial, Palo Alto, CA

Mary Butler and Kirby Gloin, Ottowa, Canada

Hanni Woodbury, Wellfleet, MA

Margery Greenspan, New York, NY

SELECTED CORPORATE COLLECTIONS

Alpern and Alpern, Pittsburgh, PA

Wellington Management, Boston, MA

Vick Corporation, New York, NY