Editorial with Curator Claudia Cheng

Margaret Thompson’s Synesthetic Responses to Music and the Natural World

The mystical paintings of New-Mexico based artist Margaret Thompson embody spirituality, explorations of symbols, and a reverence to the natural world. The artist collects raw materials such as earth, sand, and spices, using them as natural pigments to create her own symbolic language and colour harmonies which breathe and undulate on her canvases. Always in tune with her ever-changing environment, she often paints outside, as her sensory openness allows her to absorb the light, colours, and energy of New Mexico’s expansive landscape. She records her synesthetic responses to music and the natural world on her lyrical canvases, which unfold like scenes from ancient mythology or a portal opening to another dimension. Beckoning the viewer to step into a world where spirits, shells, and shrines are bathed in moonlight, Margaret’s surreal dreamscapes heighten our connection with the synchronistic rhythms of the universe.

Margaret Thompson received a BA in Visual Arts and International Studies from Eckerd College. Her recent exhibitions include ‘I look at the moon like a fellow traveller’ at Lamb Gallery, London, UK; ‘Hawthorn and the Feast of Julian’ at Arusha Gallery, NY, US; ‘Midsummer’ at Tyger Tyger Gallery, NC, US; ‘Secret Garden’ at Wilder Gallery, London, UK; ‘Seven Surfaces’ at Red Arrow Gallery, TN, US.