SARAH MCRAE MORTON | FAIR, HAIL
Fulton's Last Bow, oil on canvas, 45 x 72 inches
Sarah McRae Morton | Fair, Hail
December 2022 - January 2023
Sarah McRae Morton stands with one foot firmly in the tradition of Western figural art and the other in a hauntingly beautiful dreamscape of her own unique imagination. Often referencing literature, natural history, and memory, her paintings convey myth-like narratives that blend reality with dreaming, while highlighting her mastery of paint. McRae Morton's animal menagerie in Fair, Hail includes some of her favorites like whales, boars, and horses as well as some that are less familiar such as alewives, and snow crabs. People in 19th century attire are integrated with the animals often with a sense of blurred movement that the artist is recognized for. Many of the new paintings are presented on panel, and some are as small as 10 x 10 inches, contrasting with the large new canvas of a whale, Fulton's Last Bow.'
March of the Ale Wives, oil on panel 20 x 20
"My paintings mimic American academic construction. The compositions draw from a canon of western paintings where a common goal was to deceive the viewer- to build a believable window view to an invented scene by an alchemic process using dirt, stone oil, sap, gems and flax. The style of the pieces varies according to the prevalent style of art during each character's lifetime, displaying facets of aesthetic traditions, or challenges to convention that made American art history."
- Sarah McRae Morton