Megan Chapman
Megan Chapman and her cat Evie
The Artist’s Eye
by Maryevelyn Jones
Fayetteville Free Weekly
2003
Family and friends have always encouraged Megan Chapman in art and painting. Chapman was born and raised in Fayetteville. She returned to Fayetteville after receiving a bachelor’s of fine arts from the University of Oregon in Eugene. Chapman organized the Rebel Artist Collective in Fayetteville and also wrote interviews of local artists for an online section of The Morning News.
She paints in the house she grew up in. Her inspiration and influences range from childhood memories of her parents’ and their friends’ artwork to art by Modigliani, Basquiat, and many others.
After learning to paint realistic figures and objects she chooses painting in abstract. The thrill of uncertainty about what her finished work will look like gives her the excitement of creating it. She often listens to music by Brian Eno while painting, which she described a little like her paintings– without specific words but atmospheric and moving. Both listening to Eno’s music and the act of painting become a meditative process for Chapman.
Even though she paints abstract, Chapman still shows balance, structure, line, color, and texture. Some people call her work retro 50’s jazz style. She describes her paintings as created primitive dreams. They show just enough to think about tangible things but never really shows a precise object. First, she builds bumpy texture of lines and crags directly on the canvas. She does this by using a piece of paper that already has acrylic-modeling paste built up on it to add paste to a new canvas. Then she moves to oil color. Certain colors, such as deep rusty oranges, yellow ochre, and blues appeal to her more than other colors. To finish the look she wants, she fuses lines of charcoal on top of the oil.
Chapman’s paintings are on display at Rocky Creek Art Gallery, at Common Grounds, and at the Ozark Art Center’s 5x5 show during October. She continuously paints and changes out the paintings she sells with new ones. You can see even more of her work at www.meganchapman.com.