“Church Street Morning” by Peggy Watson, acrylic on panel
ST. JOHNSBURY – Paintings by Peggy Watson will be on exhibit at the Back Room Gallery through November 11.
Originally from Brooklyn, Watson moved to Vermont after a career as an art teacher, after receiving her degree at Pratt Institute of Art. She began teaching in her home area, but took a job as a middle and high school art teacher at the American Community School in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emerites Throughout this period, Watson was able to paint in many locales, such as Oman, Nepal, Austria, Thailand, and the Netherlands.
She moved to Vermont in 2000, where she and her husband raised their two sons, settling in Montpelier. While her children were young, she worked as a muralist, a cook, and most recently, as an early childhood special educator, all the while continuing to paint the world outside her door.
In 2019, Watson sustained a brain injury, which forced her to leave her teaching job. She discovered that her art was not adversely affected by this injury, although her style of painting changed. Her usual, traditional, style of figurative painting was too confusing for her, so she began to play, and developed a style that worked for her. She would build up individual shapes with scrap material she had around the house (foam core, cereal boxes, string, cardboard, etc) by gluing them onto canvas or masonite. She would carve texture into the shapes and paint over the composition with acrylic paint. She now refers to them as her “3-D” paintings.
The gallery is located at 430 Railroad St., and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. For more information, see nekartisansguild.com
