Art without limits: Medina painter Margaret Pappas keeps creating despite vision loss

When asked about her artistic style, Medina resident Margaret Pappas described it as “prolific.”

Since 1971, she has created more than 450 oil paintings, ranging from landscapes and still-life works to whimsical characters, celebrity portraits and recreations of famous paintings. In recent years, her work has become more abstract as she continues to paint despite losing most of her sight.

Pappas never took an art class. She became intrigued when given a Norman Rockwell photo. “I wondered how he did this,” she said. “When my husband was away working in New York, and after my kids went to bed, I decided to try it.”

She began by recreating an image from the sixth station of the cross, depicting Veronica wiping the face of Jesus. It was just before Easter, and she had often seen the image in church while growing up in a Catholic orphanage. “I took the picture to show my Aunt June,” she said. “She started crying and told me it was beautiful. I picked up my brush and didn’t put it down until last year.”

Ironically, Veronica was the name of her mother, who left her and two siblings when she was 18 months old. Pappas was emancipated at 14 and supported herself as a waitress, primarily at Stouffer restaurants. She later married a man who had immigrated from Greece, inspiring many of her paintings of Greek scenes. They had a son and a daughter and were married for 33 years until his death.

Pappas often recreates famous paintings, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, which hangs in her living room alongside a portrait of Mother Teresa. After studying celebrity photographs, she painted portraits of LeBron James with Warren Buffett, Rod Stewart and Jeff Bezos. In 2016, she sent a painting of President Donald Trump to the White House but received no response.

She sells her artwork at margaret-pappas.pixels.com and is a featured artist on FineArtAmerica.com, which describes her as “well known in downtown Cleveland as a prominent artist.”

Locally, Pappas has displayed her paintings at the Medina Library and the Medina County Fair, where she has won 13 ribbons for 16 entries over the past four years, including a first-place award in 2025 for her painting “Fall in Appalachia.”

After visiting the Medina County Historical Society’s McDowell-Phillips House, she painted it using her remaining vision and donated the piece to board president Brian Feron. “Brian told me they preferred to keep it in the house,” Pappas said. “I went back and saw it hanging in an upstairs bedroom. He said it is a highlight of the house tours. I was very honored that they wanted to do that.”

Last year, her macular degeneration worsened to the point where she could no longer see details. “I was trying to paint the Mona Lisa, and a friend asked why I gave her a beauty mark,” she said. “It was supposed to be her pupil but was out of place.”

After losing confidence, Pappas stopped painting until her daughter suggested she try abstracts. “That will let me off the hook for perfection,” she said.

Her first piece after returning to painting was of fallen leaves for her daughter, who loves autumn. It will be displayed in the banquet hall at Nottingham Court Senior Living Apartments, where she lives. Two neighbors visit monthly to select several of her seasonal paintings to display.

Pappas is legally blind but lives independently, supported by her daughter, a nurse at Southwest General Hospital. She receives daily meals from Medina County Senior and Adult Services and assistance from the Cleveland Sight Center, which has featured reproductions of her work on Christmas cards for the past four years.

Asked for advice to aspiring artists with disabilities, Pappas said, “If your will is strong enough, you will find a way around the problem and will do it.”