Current Solo Show:
Dragon Land (New Paintings)
through February 11, 2024
Next Stage Arts Gallery
15 Kimball Hill Rd, Putney, VT
www.nextstagearts.org
The gallery is open during performances and by appointment.
(Next Stage is located diagonally across the street from the Putney General Store and a couple doors up the hill from Sword Hands Acupuncture & Qigong.)
About Dragon Land:
Inner worlds, creatures, and dynamic communication emerge within my paintings. When working, I am interested in the moment when a mark on the page starts communicating with me, leading me to the next movement. I strive to wait, see, and listen for what the painting wants or asks.
The blank canvases, upon which this series of paintings began, were not actually blank: For hours, a small group of artists, dancers, writers, and musicians dipped their feet in pigment and walked, gestured, slid, and jumped on a paper-covered floor, leaving behind footprints and sweeping marks of color*. The footprint-speckled paper was later cut up into smaller pieces upon which I began making these imaginal landscapes.
Natural earth-based ink -- made from various plants, riverbeds, nuts, and crushed rocks (to name a few) -- is the primary medium of this series†. As I added multiple layers of pigment, I simply entered the minimal marks that were already there, looking for what wanted to be revealed. Imaginary beings, angels, guardians, animals and other primal elements surfaced out of the rich landscapes of color and texture.
It is my hope that these landscapes can speak to the viewer in a language that transcends the spoken word. Perhaps the painting has something to show you. Or perhaps you have something to say or ask the painting after your memory is sparked. Perhaps a painting will come alive before your eyes. Perhaps it will remain hidden, waiting for a different conversation.
Art teaches me with every brushstroke and every gesture.
-Sarah H. Paulson
* The blank canvases were created during the opening of the School of 3 Lights Artist Residency program in Whitefield, Maine (www.schoolof3lights.org). The final paintings were made in Putney, Vermont.
† The natural inks were made by Katherine West (who works under the name “In the Name of the Madrone”) and Laura Hepner.
Volcano (#15 of 19), 2023, natural pigment, charcoal, graphite, and pastel on paper, 28 ½ x 30 ¼ inches (framed)