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Sarah Rogers - Sundance, WY
When someone asks me why I paint what I paint, my first thought is, 'Why do you have a love affair?' Sarah Rogers says. I'm not sure even I know the answer to that. I think, perhaps, it's chemistry. Indeed, the artist approaches her work with a lover's ardor. I love the fauves and the expressionists, she declares, thier use of color, and their use of passion! Even though Sarah Rogers was born in Seattle, Washington, she also loves her home in the Northern Black Hills of Wyoming. It's so beautiful here that I sometimes wonder why I don't paint landscapes. She sometimes describes her work as Tropical Western Wildlife. Rogers works principally in watercolor and graphite on smooth, hot-press paper or plate-smooth illustration board. Her previous background as a designer moved her in the direction of the using bold color and abstraction. There already are many fine painters of realisitic wildlife, she explains. My intent when painting is more to express the spirit or the gesture of my subject than for the details of it's structure. Her Bears and wolves appear in close-cropped images whose intense eyes seem to engage the viewer with personal atttention. Some are typical wolf, or bear colors. But others, like Lobo Rojo, are splashed with scarlet or vivid blue. All of my critters become very personal as I paint them, Rogers says. Some of the bears and most of the wolves evolve into portraits of friends and neighbors. For example, Matinee Idol is a portrait of my father. I don't have a summarizing theory of color...I just love it!. Rogers says she especially likes to experiment with hot colors. Red is her favorite. Rogers received her degree in fine art from the Univeristy of Florida at Gainesville. She worked as a graphic designer in Columbus and Charleston, South Carolina, then moved on to New York City, where she spent seven years as an art director for an advertising agency. Her work is included in collections worldwide. |