(This article, reprinted with permission and featuring Marcia Neuman Wegman, class of 1953, appeared in the Cedar Rapids Gazette in November 2007)  12/8/07

A good life

Iowa City artist writes, hikes, travels and dogsleds at 72

By Cindy Cullen Chapman


The artist in her home studio.

Marcia Wegman of Iowa City is an artist who is never short of sources of inspiration for her work. She finds it virtually everywhere: during her extensive work travels, thoughout the Iowa countryside and in her own backyard.

Much to the delight of her granddaughter, Lexie, Wegman is also an author. She wrote and illustrated her self-published children’s book, “Lula Belle,” about a friendly raccoon that lives in her backyard.

Still, Wegman is probably best known for her art, particularly her pastel landscapes. Her “models” are the Iowa countryside, as well as rural areas around the United States and the countries in which she’s traveled.

"Children's Home Sheep: Lithuania," a 24-by-24-inch pastel on paper, is one of the works in Marcia Wegman's next exhibit.

The many photos she took during a 1995 walking trip though England became the basis for her first foray into pastel landscapes; the subject matter just seemed to call for pastels, she says. A couple who had commissioned a previous abstract piece were drawn to those works and asked if she did Iowa landscapes.

“I said I hadn’t, but I would love to. And that’s what I do primarily now, but every once in a while, I enjoy putting away the pastels and doing abstracts.”

The author with the subject of her book, Lula Belle, which Wegman wrote for her granddaughter.

Wegman is a prolific painter, completing about two paintings a week.

“I work very quickly and very intensely, for short spurts of time – six to seven days,” she says. “The nice thing about pastels is that it lends itself to that method of working.”

In addition to providing artistic inspiration, travel is one of Wegman’s passions.

Wegman (left) is pictured with a friend, Mary Lea, during a hike of the Grand Canyon.

Along with the trip to England, she’s backpacked and done Sierra Club service trips on which members camp and repair trails. Her other destinations have included Egypt, Lithuania, Latvia and Machu Picchu in Peru. She’s also gone dog sledding in Minnesota, river rafting in the Southwest and white-water rafting.

Of the latter, she says, “I don’t intend to do that again. It was very scary at times.”

Her show, “Through the Parks,” at the Iowa Artisans Gallery featured images from national parks in Canada and the U.S. And now in the works is an exhibit tentatively titled “Through Lithuania with Heifer International,” scheduled for June at Iowa Artisans.

Wegman with one of the dogs during a dog-sledding trip in Minnesota

Wegman says it’s based on her volunteer work with the charity Heifer International, an organization that works with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth.

At 72, Wegman says she has no plans to slow down, in her travels or her painting.

“I’m very fortunate to be in excellent physical condition – I’ve worked at it,” she says. “It’s a good life.”

Wegman’s work is carried at Iowa Artisans Gallery in Iowa City and at Campbell Steele Gallery in Marion. Her web site is www.marciawegman.com.

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