Clear Water, 2024
After studying painting at New York's School of Visual Arts, Megan Lightell returned to the rural imagery of her youth. Her work explores the complex, personal relationship humans have with land. In an increasingly fast-paced and technology-reliant culture, the simple, primal connection to land that sustains life is easily lost. Her imagery tends to lack manmade elements, allowing the viewer to experience a moment of reflection and solitude. She enjoys working with the slow, traditional materials of oil and canvas but approaches each image with a contemporary sensibility. Much of the focus of her life and work is on a connection to land, either in painting or in tending her family's urban permaculture farm where they grow their own food year-round.