Photo by Claire Kivior
By Claire Kivior
Contributing writer
Editor’s note: This article is the tenth in a series of articles that will feature all 14 artists that will be participating in the 2019 Open Studios-Botetourt tour on October 26 and 27. Each week leading up to the two-day event, The Herald will feature one artist – highlighting their passion for their chosen artform.
Local painter Mary Anne Meador, based out of Buchanan, has been working as a full-time artist for almost 20 years. Meador has always been an artist. One of her earliest memories was entering in her local newspaper’s “Draw Me” competition. Meador never won, but her passion for art blossomed.
After high school, Meador’s parents encouraged her to go into the medical field, so she put aside her creative passions to work as a registered nurse and provide for her family. It wasn’t until her two children were grown and her husband retired that she felt she had the time to transition to her next career— artist. Meador considers her 33-year nursing career her “first life.” It wasn’t until 1999, when she made the jump to a full-time artist, that she began her “second life.”
Meador got her start in Kill Devil Hills, N.C., taking art classes at a local community college. It was in these classes that she discovered her passion for pastels. Meador and her husband then relocated to outside of Morehead City, where she joined the Pastel Society, a local chapter of a national organization called the International Association of Pastel Societies. The society was responsible for setting up exhibitions for its members along costal Carolina.
In 2008, Meador moved to Fincastle, where she served as the president of the League of Roanoke Artists. Meador then changed paths, joining the Double Line Painters of the Blue Ridge, a regional group that practices plein air painting, an artistic practice of creating outside of a studio. Meador has taught classes at various community colleges, and currently has work on display at Black Dog, Second Helpings, Gallery 108, and Goose Creek.
Painting has taught Meador to see things differently than she had before. As a plein air styled artist, Meador is inspired by landscapes— particularly “the subjects of air and sky.” Meador recalled a time painting on the beach with a close friend.
Her friend asked, “Tell me, why do you paint your water so differently?”
“So I said okay, look out there at the water and tell me what colors you see, but you can’t use blue, and you can’t use green. She couldn’t do it, and so I said well I see this and that… those are the things that inspire me, what do I see that isn’t necessarily what everyone else sees?”
Chalk pastels and acrylic paints are Meador’s medium of choice. Although she complains on hot days, acrylic can become tricky, as the sun dries the paint on the canvas quicker than she can apply it— a common problem of many plein air artists.
In her home, Meador has works of her friends on display. She finds that hanging up her friends’ artwork is a fine way of preserving memories from the past.
“I’ve got lot of my friends’ art, particularly a lot of my friends I don’t see anymore. We would paint together and exchange paintings sometimes. And to me, that brings back so much connection to the person and the activities we used to do.”
This upcoming fall, Meador is looking forward to the cooler weather, and painting the bright fall landscapes. One of her favorite spots to paint is in Carvins Cove, or outlooks along the Blue Ridge Parkway. This winter, Meador will be featured in a gallery opening at Second Helpings in downtown Roanoke.
For more information about Open Studios-Botetourt, visit: https://openstudiosbotetourt.com/.
