Margaret Scott

Facebookhttp://Margaretscott.co.nz
Websitehttp://margaretscott.co.nz

Margaret Scott was born in Opunake,Taranaki in 1947and has lived all her life on the Taranaki Coast in New Zealand. She is the 7th child from a family of seven children.

For 35 years Margaret lived on a dairy farm with her husband Ian, and bought up her four children ,painted and helped with the running of the farm.

Margaret taught polytechnic art and night class art in the early years when her children were young and exhibited with the Taranaki Art Society,the Hawera art club, and the Stratford Art Society. She was a foundation Member of the Egmont Community Arts Council and Chairperson of this organisation for 10 years.During this time she was an elected member of the Central Reginal Arts Council in Wellington and was involved with helping secure funding for rural arts communities.

In 1993 she became HOD of Art at Opunake High Scoll where she taught for 10 years. During this time she was invited to be a marker for the School Certifiate Art in Wellington.

In 2002 Margaret opened her Art By the Sea Studio next to her home in Oakura, where she taught workshops for adults and extension classes for students.However now due to changed circumstances she has moved her studio inside her home . She also mentors emerging artists and gives talks to interesting community groups and schools.

Margaret is a foundation member of the Oakura ArtsTrail and the Taranaki Arts Trail, which involves this thriving Arts community and its artist ,opening their studios to the public. She has had 17 solo exhibitions and exhibited widely throughout New Zealand. She has been an invited Tutor and judge to many workshops and exhibitions in other provinces and has been involved in group showings with the Virtual Tart group in England,Paris, New York,Tokyo and Melbourne.

She has prodused many commisoned work and is the designer of the Jason Products Placemats "Sea Bounty" series which were marketed throughout New Zealand and overseas. In 2007 she ilustrated the book Midnight at the Lighthouse written and produced by storyeller Lesley Dowding. In 2017 she held her 50 year Restrospective exhibition at Percy Thomson Gallery called "A Sense of Place" which showcased over 70 different works from throughout her career

In 2015 she wrote and produced her own book called "Self Portriat of a Paua" which is part autobiographical and part resource. She sold out of the first edition and is crrently still selling the second edition print run.

In 2025 she wrote the novel "Salt on the Wind " and is currently hoping for a publisher.......

 

Genre:

    Skills:

    • Adult Fiction
    • Autobiography / Memoir

    Branch:

    Central Districts

    Location:

    Taranaki

    Publications:

    Self-Portrait of a Paua

    First Edition Published in  New Zealand Nov2015 - 500 Copies

    Second Edition Published in NZ February 2020 -200 copies

    Printed by GraphicPress and Packaging,Levin

    Soft cover ISBN978-O-473-33960-9

    Hardback ISBN978-0-473-339961-6

    This unique and inspirational book takes us on a journey that covers artist Margaret Scott's life and over forty years of her work . Anecdotes of childhood memories ,life in rural and coastal Taranaki,and Margarets international travels have all been captured within her vivid and colourful paintings and through workbook pages that demonstrate painting techniques. Part autobiographical and part resource, this is a valuable and informativebook that emerging painters,teachers and lovers of art of all ages will enjoy

    Salt on the wind -2025

    I have completed this book and it has been edited and I am now looking for a New Zealand Publisher

    Synopsis

    When 15 year old Sam leaves the crowded streets of Bangkok for a windswept coastal town in rural New Zealand, he steps into a world utterly unlike his own. Sent to complete his schooling as an international student,he finds himself adrift among unfamiliar faces,foreign customs and a landscape that feels at once beautiful and isolating.

    By chance,and because of his lack of English he is put into an Art class,a decision meant to fill his timetable ,not change his life. To everyones surprise including his own , Sam revelas an extrordinary intuitive gift for art,despite never having held a brush before.His teacher,Joan.recognises his raw talentand becomes both mentor and anchor.Through painting and drawing Sam begins to understand not only the country around him -the light,the silence, the vastness-but also his own identity and place with in it.

    What begins as a lonely experience becomes a transformative chapter in his life.Sam learns to see the world with new eyes, and in doing so,finds a sense of belogingfar from his home.

    Years later living overseas with his New Zealand -born wife, Sam returns with her and their two sons during the Covid Pandemic.The journey back,unplanned and steeped in uncertainty, reconnects him to his former classmates and with Joan.

    Through these reunion, Sam rediscovers the creative spark and wonder that fist awakened in him all those years ago.

    This is a tender,reflective exploration of displacement, connection and the power of art to bridge cultures and generations. It traces one young mans coming of age across continents and decade and how the places that once shaped us , sometimes call us to return.