Welcome to the Evanston, IL home studio of Marjorie Davidson.

Spring is further along in Illinois as a budding green garden welcomed us into Marjorie's beautiful 1920's bungalow. Visiting Marjie's home and studio was so illuminating- this home is so her. The calm, cool colors, abundant house plants, and bright white walls filled with her work give us such a sense of who she is. Just as Marjie's paintings mirror her aura, her home does too; peaceful, fresh, and cozy.  

Marjorie Davidson, a classically trained pianist and accomplished teacher and performer, has studied at both Carnegie Mellon and DePaul Universities and is a graduate of the Northwestern School of Music. 

A mostly self-taught painter of still life and landscapes, her work is an exploration of the interplay of color and surface both in watercolor and oil. Her strong love of nature has focused primarily on the landscapes of Northern Lake Michigan and the Carolina coast. 

A student of the late George Rocheleau, Ms. Davidson says of her work "to capture the depth of feeling inspired by the quietest time of day, the movement of the sea, wind through trees, the endless shifting of light over land."

WOODWALK

Describe your work in 3 words

MARJORIE

delicate, subtle, pretty

WOODWALK

What do you love about your chosen medium/media?

MARJORIE

I love the range of color and texture

WOODWALK

Is there another medium you enjoy exploring?

MARJORIE

I also love watercolors

WOODWALK

Tell us about the body of work you have at Woodwalk this year.

MARJORIE

Many of the paintings that I have at Woodwalk this year are Door County inspired. I love the harbors (especially Fish Creek), the fields as one drives through the middle of the Peninsula, the sky, horizons, clouds, and how the light changes as it moves across the Peninsula all day long. And the quiet. I intend to include the quiet into the paintings.

WOODWALK

What are some consistent aspects of your creative process? 

MARJORIE

I always tone my canvas, usually with a mix of sienna and ultramarine. Just enough so that the canvas isn't white. I always divide my canvas , no matter the size, both horizontally and vertically, dividing the bottom third half of the canvas multiple times so I can create a horizon, a straight line when needed, and a composition that sits underneath a big sky. I often wipe layers onto the canvas with a paper towel, fingers, or a large hardware store brush, and then add in bits of detail , paint, and color, with a palette knife and artist brushes. (and fingers) I generally go back to the those larger hardware store brushes at the very end of working on a piece with extra oil (I use artist walnut oil).

WOODWALK

What does your ideal day in the studio look like?

MARJORIE

I always listen to music (I'm a pianist) , I always have my dog asleep on a blanket close by, it is summer and so right outside my window is a large window box filled with flowers and so there are colors to choose just inches away from my palette, I work for 2-4 hours at a stretch with breaks to walk around a bit and also look at the piece a bit. I'm a slow painter and like to walk away and come back to the piece with a new view or a touch of color or texture here or there or even to move the painting to a different room in my house to see it in a different light and space.

WOODWALK

If you could go anywhere in the world for a creative residency, where would you go? Why?

 

MARJORIE

Two places! The Smokey Mountains in NC and Door County. The quiet, the light, so many different textures and colors in the land and water and sky. And just the pure beauty of those places is so inspiring and provide endless landscapes and expansive views. I love the quiet that is present in those places.

WOODWALK

What inspires or influences you?

MARJORIE

Observation, music and the way it fits together as that is my training, Monet, Pissaro, Sergeant, and many more of the masters, and many landscape painters who are painting beautiful landscapes in the present.

WOODWALK

How has your work evolved over the years?

MARJORIE

I think that as I both show and sell my paintings the paintings are becoming more confident in and of themselves both in content and execution. I continue to learn how to present them in ways that enhance the paintings.

WOODWALK

Anything else you'd like to share about your process? Studio? Yourself as an artist?

MARJORIE

I love the process of learning about myself and painting by painting! It's quiet and reflective time and there is a lot of intellectual, tactile, observation, patience, and physical parts of myself involved in the process. I love being in the process.