SOLO EXHIBITION | JACKSON, WY
Altamira Fine Art Jackson is pleased to present a solo exhibition for Utah artist Jared Sanders.
Please join us for an Artist Reception during the ArtWalk, Thursday, August 17th from 5-8pm and Meet the Artist.
CONVERGENCE
Patience and humility guide Jared Sanders: “I’m still learning how to paint,” he says. “Each painting teaches me something new.”
In this open-minded state, Sanders allows ideas to germinate before coming to fruition. “Some ideas I’ve been thinking about for several years; I haven’t quite figured out how to get them on canvas. Maybe they are too far of a leap. Sometimes, things that I learn from one painting make other ideas in my head finally possible.”
Take, for example, his nuanced concept for a barn scene: Sanders imagines a sketch-like structure, loose yet resolved, with a composition unified by a monochromatic palette. “I know what I want to accomplish with it—almost a large-scale sketch,” he says. “I haven’t done it yet, but I think I might actually be able to paint what’s in my head now.”
His handling of materials often makes the difference: the types of brushes or paints he uses; his application techniques; to frame or not to frame. “I’ve finally evolved to where some paintings won’t have frames and others will. This barn painting hopefully won’t have a frame—that’s part of what’s held me back.”
His patience now extends to allowing pauses in his praxis: “Over the years, I have found there’s pauses in the work where new possibilities and new ideas come together,” he says. “If I’m working nonstop in the studio, painting one painting after another without break, the work can become formulaic.”
“When I was a lot younger, I would just crank out paintings, saying ‘No’ to everything else. Part of that was good—it helped forward my career,” Sanders reflects. Decades on, he now values space away from his easel. “I have learned to do a lot of the problem-solving in my head when I’m not in the studio,” he says.
With such rumination comes the danger of over-thinking specific elements. “Each mark matters, but at the same time, can’t be too important or else it will become stagnant, or eclipse the overall effect of the painting,” he says. “This is the part of the process that I’m working on: I’m trying to overcome my natural tendency to be stiff and controlled by exploring ways of applying paint that feel more free-flowing and natural.”
Pre-sales available. Contact the gallery for details, (307) 739-4700, connect@altamiraart.com.