Introducing: Sara Pittman
Sara Pittman in her studio.
Foster/White is thrilled to announce that Sara Pittman has joined the gallery's roster of artists! Known for her ethereal paintings, Foster/White interviewed Pittman in advance of her solo feature in the gallery. The exhibition opens First Thursday, February 6 and runs until Saturday, February 22. Pittman's collection is also viewable online.
On Nature's Time, mixed media on canvas, 30 x 60 inches
Foster/White Gallery: Will you tell us a little bit about your process?
Sara Pittman: Intuition is the driving force behind all that I create. Without it, there would be no emotion to be felt, and ultimately no soul to the work. It’s important that I begin each piece with certain thoughts in mind, but no specific plan. Fluidity and freedom allow me to explore feelings and images as they surface naturally – not through force. By laying my canvas flat on the ground, I walk around each side of the painting as if I’m in ritual, and I begin the act of moving. I pour washes and allow gravity to participate, while I gesturally make marks and add layers of color and shape. Eventually, I begin to see what it is my hand and heart are declaring, and from that point I’m able to move in a direction. The process becomes more direct as I add fine, delicate layers of oil paint that give my work its ethereal essence. Sfumato painting, which is my way of shading colors and tones gradually together, allows my work to appear otherworldly and has become my distinct visual language.
Ephemerality and Bird Song on display in the artist's studio.
F/WG: What specifically draws you to painting?
SP: Paint is a forgiving medium and gives me the flexibility that’s required for exploration. Abstract painting asks the artist to come to terms with control and the acceptance of letting it go. In order for me to achieve work that is instinctive, I must paint, and then cover up and repaint, many times. Every layer involved plays its vital role and adds to the dimension of the work, but so too does the subtraction of them. So much of my work is about building layers, but it’s also about “erasing” them, too. Acrylic paint dries fast and allures me with its adaptable nature. Simultaneously, the buttery, seductiveness of oil paint requires me to be more intentional.
F/WG: Collage appears as a new element in your work. What appeals to you about collage as a medium in your paintings?
SP: The deliberate cutting of a painting can be cathartic, but it also uses a completely different part of my brain. I’ve always been a delicate painter in terms of building up a piece through fine layers, but now I’m interested in texture and how that might play a role in my work. I have no interest in applying thicker paint, so the collaged canvas pieces allow me to add to the surface, giving the painting more dimension and an interesting way to offer texture.
F/WG: After your recent trip to Japan, your work shifted. How was the trip a catalyst for this style change?
SP: This was the furthest away from home I had ever been. Many parts of Tokyo felt as though I could be walking down a street here in Atlanta. In another instance, we’d walk into an old tea house and be transported to another time in another world. It’s cliché to say a trip changed me, but in many ways, it did. Not dramatically or suddenly, but incrementally and over time. I came home with an admiration for Japanese aesthetic and artistry, their dedication to intentionality, and how the natural world is such an important subject matter in their art. Being immersed in foreign land brought so much appreciation for nature that I wanted to somehow incorporate that into my paintings while still staying true to my intuitive approach. Over these last 4 years, my work has slowly hinted at elements of nature, all the while still remaining of another realm entirely. My work embodies many different notions and feelings, nature has just become a symbol for them. Japan gave me a different point of a view and new path for exploring my work.
A view of Magome, Japan taken by the artist during her trip.
F/WG: You have touched on how becoming a mother has influenced your practice. Will you speak more about that?
SP: Motherhood has connected me to the natural world even more than I imagined. When I see petals drifting through space, I’m reminded of how I’ve blossomed while also confronted with the hurriedness of time and how I’d like to it speed up and yet desperately slow down. Motherhood, elements of nature – these are all marks of my life that intertwine and represent one another. Motherhood has added richness and more meaning to my paintings.
F/WG: Which artists influence you? Where do you see your work within the contemporary landscape?
SP: I’m influenced by the emotionality of Rothko, the delicate yet punchiness of Bobbie Burgers, and the expansiveness and rich palette of Flora Yukhnovich. Now that I write that, it’s interesting because my work holds within it an element of every one of these artists. That’s where an artist finds their voice. Not by being siloed in their studios afraid of influence, but it’s exactly those impressions that tell us what we’re drawn to and why.
In terms of my own work and where it stands, I believe that abstraction is a vehicle and also an escape from a world that can often seem unrecognizable or even a world we choose not to recognize. I think that I paint in this way because it feels like the only true form of expression and the only way for me to escape into a world in which I’d like to live. I confront my own truths while also creating a realm in which these deep emotions and questions can live in harmony and beauty. No matter where we are in history, I believe there is always place for intuitive and emotionally-driven painting.
A Symphony in the Clouds, mixed media on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
F/WG: Is there anything you want people to know about your works that is not touched on or widely known?
SP: I have no interest in my painting that which already exists. I want to paint as if I’m dreaming, and my hope for the viewer to dream too. Get lost in my work and don’t think too much. Just feel. The questions that are meant to arise, will. The feelings that emerge should be celebrated and explored. My work is a place to escape to, not a place to make sense of.