Meghan Weeks is a representational landscape painter who has worked and exhibited on Nantucket for more than twenty years. Drawing and painting throughout her childhood, she studied Architecture at Yale University and Museum Curating at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. After completing her studies, she entered work in the cultural heritage field in Boston, continuing to paint and show her own art professionally. In 2022, she decided to pursue a full-time career as an artist.
An enthusiastic plein air painter, Weeks begins most of her pieces outside and on site, working in all seasons to capture the experience of observing the built and natural landscapes of New England and beyond. When she returns to the studio, she uses information gathered outdoors to refine smaller paintings and develop larger works. She believes that painting the world as it is today documents the human imprint upon our landscape, and our ability and responsibility to protect it.
Weeks is a longtime artist member (since 2001) of the AAN and current Vice President on the organization’s Board of Directors. Her work can also be found at Pierce Galleries in Nantucket, as well as at Folly Cove Fine Art (Rockport, MA), The Rockport Art Association & Museum, and the Copley Society of Art (Boston, MA).
While my work follows a tradition of representational landscape painting, I try to depict places as they are at present. Light conditions and atmosphere lead the way when selecting a subject. An illuminated pane or a dynamic shadow can render an otherwise mundane scene compelling enough to hold that moment in time on the surface of a canvas.
I studied architecture and museum curating and worked in the cultural heritage sector for over a decade before deciding to pursue art full-time. My interest in the built environment and curating continues to impact my work as an artist, just as my experience as a painter has informed my approach to interpreting art and architecture.
I prefer to paint en plein air; there is endless information to glean from working onsite, and the adventure of painting outdoors in all seasons fuels my work. For larger pieces, I often compose a scene from smaller studies and use those as references for the final studio painting.
While I tend to depict spaces devoid of people, the influence of humans is always present in my work. Buildings and infrastructure carry the imprints of those who have created and moved through them. Even the natural landscape—punctuated by roads, paths, barriers, and clearings —carries the mark of people. In wilder spaces, we are still influencing the atmosphere, temperature, and weather patterns. Painting the world as it is speaks to the human imprint upon our landscape, as well as to our responsibility to protect it.
