Megan Collins didn’t begin painting until after she moved to Hawaii. The tropical splendor and fabulous profusion of colors she found everywhere she looked, created a hunger to create what she saw visually. It was then she realized that she was supposed to be painting, and has been painting ever since.
Megan was born in November of 1962 on a small island off the coast of Maine. Both her mother and grandfather were artists, and she began sketching at a young age. She grew up on stories of the Wyeth family from her brother who used to frequent Monhegan, and is perhaps most strongly influenced by Jamie Wyeth and Peter Poskas whose artworks she has loved since she was a child. Even after many years in Hawaii, she still finds the coastal scenery and jagged coastlines of Maine tremendously inspirational. Although she paints mostly Hawaiian tropical scenes, she revisits her love of Maine in her artwork as well.
Megan studied music for many years, beginning her first voice lessons when she was six, and piano at eight. A 1985 graduate of Dartmouth College, her major was in Geography and Education, and she also studied both art and music. Her creative gifts have flourished throughout her life through performances in both music and summer-stock theater, designing playbills, writing poetry and music, jewelry design, pottery, calligraphy, and, most recently, fine art.
Today, Megan lives on a 75-acre farm called Paradise Meadows, on the southern end of the Big Island of Hawaii. When she isn’t painting, she’s busy working on the farm doing anything from fixing the roof to giving tours of the aquaponics.
