Margaret Frances Paraskos (born 1959) is an English-born artist of Cypriot descent and a resident in Cyprus. She is the daughter of the Cypriot artist Stass ParaskosDavid Haste, 'Other lives: Stass Paraskos' in The Guardian (UK newspaper), 24 May 2015, p.59 and succeeded him as the director of the Cyprus College of Art.
Biography
Margaret Paraskos was born in Leeds, daughter of the Cypriot artist Stass Paraskos. She attended Chartham County Secondary Modern School in Kent, England, and went on to study Fine Art at the University of Brighton. She later studied for a master's degree in Fine Art at the University of Northampton.'Η Μάρκαρετ Παράσκου εκθέτει στη Κυπριακή Γωνιά' in Η Καθημερινη (Greece newspaper), 29 March 2012, Online version
She has been employed in teaching art at a number of institutions, mainly in Cyprus, and has run the Lempa campus of the Cyprus College of Art since 1985. With the death of Stass Paraskos in 2014 she became the director of the Cyprus College of Art.Alix Norman, 'Travellers to an antique land' in The Cyprus Mail (Cyprus newspaper), 9 March 2015
As well as having work in collections in Cyprus, she is included in the painting collection of the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery at the University of Leeds in England.
Artistic style
Margaret Paraskos is predominantly a painter. According to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini her work is 'inspired by philosophy, mythology, the poetry of Homer and Ovid and the bucolic life'. These elements lead to brightly coloured painted canvases that are 'characterised by free flowing gestures.''Art and Line' in Kathimerini (Greece newspaper), 5 June 2011, p.2
Her works have been exhibited in Cyprus, Britain and other countries. This includes the exhibition 'Travellers to an Antique Land', held in Paphos in Cyprus in March 2015, which took its theme from the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias. In an interview on the exhibition Paraskos said, 'The poem, and thus the exhibition, share the idea of the mystery of visiting an ancient culture for the first time.'Alix Norman, 'Travellers to an antique land' in The Cyprus Mail (Cyprus newspaper), 9 March 2015
This poetic approach to painting was noted by Dr. Nadia Anaxagorou, writing on Margaret Paraskos's work in 2012, who stated: 'In a painterly universe, where the rules of order, proportion and gravity are eliminated... one figure emerges from each other in passages where reality and logic meet dreams and the imagination'.'Έκθεση της Μάρκαρετ Παράσκου στη γκαλερί Κυπριακή Γωνιά' in Τα Νέα της Τέχνης (Greek cultural journal), 29 March 2012 Online Version A strong desire to use art to convey emotions through the use of colour and shape is also evident in Paraskos's claim that, 'Through rich colors, abstract shapes and personal symbols' she is seeking to express 'strong emotions' with her work.'Η Μάρκαρετ Παράσκου εκθέτει στη Κυπριακή Γωνιά' in Η Καθημερινη (Greece newspaper), 29 March 2012, Online version
References
External links Cargo Collective website Interview with Margaret Paraskos on German television station ARTE, 17 April 2016