Meg’s work represents an observed and intuited response to the natural world, drawing on motifs from both western and eastern painting traditions. The figures in her work appear to be in motion and often appear with haloes. They are frequently juxtaposed with animals – horses, birds, camels, among others, and a feeling of the ancient connection between the human and animal worlds is explored. Sometimes the figures are travelling, in groups or alone, evoking the ancient themes of pilgrimage and migration. As well as painters of the Italian Renaissance such as Giotto and Piero della Francesca, her work draws on the imagery of Medieval Chinese, Mongolian and Persian Painting – Zhao Meng Fu, Bei, and paintings of the Liao and Song Dynasty.
Meg believes that drawing is at the core of her practice – her images all emerge from drawing. Working from life, memory, and imagination, she continually reworks her images, building up a history of marks which contain within them the trace of the struggle to render on paper something seen in the mind's eye. As a Printmaker, Meg works mostly with lithography, drawn by its potential to capture the texture and gesture of the drawn and painted mark. After selecting a drawing to develop into a lithograph, she works with lithography crayon directly onto grained plate, which is then exposed. She enjoys the way the process itself changes the drawings, making them richer, bolder, and often opening up the possibility for layers of colour. These are painted in tusche wash and added as a separate plate. Through the drawing and lithography process the subject matter is revealed – a print is never a direct reproduction of the drawing, but a response to it.
