BIOGRAPHY:
Megan Gray is a fine art landscape painter based in Monmouth County, NJ. Megan is a mostly self-taught artist, fumbling and growing creatively over the past 20-plus years while raising three wonderful children.
Megan's formal education consists of an art concentration at Red Bank Regional High School, portfolio development with the late Monmouth County artist, Evelyn Leavens, and a one-year stint as a Fine Art Major at Kean University (2022-2023). Megan realized early on that fine art was her predisposition, however a structured art degree did not suit her temperament. She knew that her creativity would find an outlet that fits just right with the ebb and flow of life itself.
Becoming a wife and mother helped Megan find the focus and motivation to pursue an artistic life; first with portrait photography, then with landscape painting in oil a few years later. Landscape painting had always been Megan's true passion; however, raising three little ones delayed her full commitment to this medium.
Megan's artistic process started slowly, with a lot of trial and error. Both the art and children have grown almost simultaneously, though the paintings can remain small while the children do not! In 2019, Megan had her first solo show with Beauregard Fine Art in Rumson, New Jersey, followed by group shows with Monmouth Museum, Monmouth Arts Council, and the John F. Peto Museum, all located within New Jersey. Her most recent group show participation was with JKR Gallery in Provo, Utah.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Heavily influenced by tonalist and impressionist landscape painters both past and present, I aim to bring the transitional moments of the day into view through my artwork. The overall mood that these moments bring, shaped by the amount of light and atmosphere within each scene drives me to complete each piece.
My paintings are not of specific places, yet seem familiar in many ways. The main objective of each painting is for it to stand alone; to bring the viewer on a visual journey closer to a stillness within themselves. In this stillness emerges a reminder of what truly is and what always will be; a visual balm to an otherwise chaotic world, or for some, a respite for a chaotic inner landscape.
INTERVIEWS & PRESS:
Monmouth Arts
Creative Spaces
Carve Out Time for Art
Candy Colored Studio Podcast
Paint Cast Podcast w/Chris Long