My Story

Hello. Thank you for visiting my site.  My name is Margie Campbell Samuels.  I've been drawing since I could hold a crayon.  I always did well in Art classes and was usually asked for help with painting caricatures on megaphones for the cheerleaders, or drawing Christmas cards for people.  It was my "go-to".  I loved to draw and loved the challenge if it was something I wasn't sure I could do.  I had great high school art teachers - you know, the kind who encouraged me, and trusted me with babysitting their kids, and attended my wedding - kind of teachers.  They taught me how to think outside the box with design projects that required developing fonts (which used to be called "typeface" which we did free-hand with a T-square), as well as teach intricate scientific illustration, and drawing from still life arrangements.  I'm sure they had high hopes for me. But I kind of dropped the ball.  I went to a private college where I could be a dancing cheerleader for their national championship football team. (That also came easily to me).   I'm not gonna lie and say I stayed focused on my art because I didn't.  I was way more interested in choreographing routines.  And it didn't help that my art teachers were clearly teaching college level art because they were unsuccessful selling any of their own work.  I only lasted two and a half years there.   It wasn't until years later after a plethora of jobs and hobbies and years of being a "horse show mom", that I returned to my love of drawing.  I took private lessons from a remarkable woman who supported my instincts on how to make beautiful art.  She had studied under a master painter, and in my opinion, was a master herself.  She taught me the fundamentals and techniques that I use to this day.  She believed in me so much that I submitted a really nice drawing I made with her guidance with my first application for an art teacher position.  It was made with a black Crayograph crayon on white drawing paper from a photo I took of my daughter at a horse show.  Luckily for me, the director of the Middle School, also a horsewoman, collected western art, and she said, "This is beautiful.  I collect western art and it's better than anything I have."  I was hired on the spot with the promise of finishing my degree.  So the start of my life teaching others to draw and becoming a real artist happened at the same time as earning my Bachelors of Art in Art.  That was 22 years ago.  I have drawn something every day since then.  I have taught hundreds of kids, both in the classroom, online or privately, in person. I have designed over 300 repeat patterns which I sell for fabric and wallpaper.  I create whimsical and realistic drawings of all kinds and I stay happy because God gave me the ability to do that.  That gift and all my pets, but particularly my current one, Walter, an Apricot Standard Poodle (looking over my shoulder in the photo) are what keep me going.  I'm grateful to make art and I'm grateful to teach art.  I have a beautiful, artistic daughter who only lives one state away, so I'm grateful to see her when I can.  I hope you find my work interesting, and I thank you again for visiting my website.