Margaret was born and raised the Bronx, has lived in Westchester and Putnam counties, and moved to Dutchess county 21 years ago. She has a B.A. in History, with a minor in Elementary Education, from the College of Mt. St. Vincent in the Bronx, and an M.A. in History from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. After teaching for 2 years, she decided to study Commercial Art, and received Certificates in Art, Design and Illustration from the Famous Artists School in Westport, CT, and the Pels School of Art in NYC, and also took classes in Graphic Design and Children’s Book Illustration at the Parson’s School of Design in NYC.

For 17 years she co-owned and managed two custom framing/art galleries and an art supply business in Westchester county. During that time she also rendered hundreds of house portraits in pen & ink, pencil and watercolor for realtors and various private clients. Currently she desktop publishes a bi-monthly newsletter for the F.W. Vanderbilt Garden Association, and an annual 24-page garden tour booklet for the Mad Garden Association in CT. Her pen & ink nature sketches have been published in The Small Pond Magazine of Literature and Stone Country Magazine, and her pencil sketches of historical buildings in the 1983 Bedford Calendar.

Margaret has become more interested in watercolor painting over the years, and has taken landscape watercolor classes at the Silvermine Guild in New Canaan, CT, the Dutchess County Art Association and the Woodstock School of Art. She is currently studying watercolor landscape and botanical painting at the Betsy Jacaruso Studio & Gallery in Red Hook, NY, and is a member of the Arts Society of Kingston and Cross River Fine Arts.