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New York City, February 24, 2011....Natural Beauty features the most recent paintings by artists Sarah
Hinckley and Katheryn Holt. United in their depictions
of and references to the natural beauty they saw in their surroundings growing
up near the beach, Holt's series of mixed media on panel are figurative and
Hinckley's oils and watercolors on canvas and paper are abstract.
Hinckley paints the elements that surrounded her
- earth, sea and sky. Holt in this series paints swimmers who turn
their back on the viewer, perhaps to reflect on personal memories or the beauty
around them. Both artists bring a love of their respective
subjects to their canvases and each paints with subtlety, grace and
elegance. The colors used are earthy and beautiful reds,
greens, and golds, blues and teals. Together the result is a visually and
emotionally satisfying collection of work that reminds the viewer of the natural
beauty that surrounds
us.
Sarah
Hinckley
Of her inspirations, Hinckley
states:
My work is
inspired from growing up surrounded by color fields of water, marsh, beach and
sky, and also by Rothko, Agnes Martin, 60s formalist color field painting and
the method of Monet's late paintings. In my studio I have
space for oil painting and watercolor. I go between mediums
switching days allowing time for reflection and drying. I
approach painting intuitively, constantly adjusting as clarify comes; most of
the works take a few months to complete and some remain in conversation for a
year or more. Patience is constantly being learned. I am
incorporating two approaches while working; one, searching while painting; the
second, writing out ideas and inspiration in a painting journal. I develop the
color fields by putting down marks and editing them in or out depending on how I
see it. This process of editing allows me the opportunity to
continually search, be it a new direction, a new color relationship or something
beautiful.
Hinckley received her MFA at Columbia, her
Fifth Year Certificate from The School of The Museum of Fine Arts in
Boston, and her BFA from Tufts.
She has had over a dozen solo and two-person exhibits throughout the
country, and countless group shows. Her paintings have been
featured in numerous publications such as Coastal Living, House
Beautiful, Architectural Digest, The New York Times Magazine,
and O (the Oprah Magazine), just to name a few. Her
work is held in hundreds of public and private collections throughout the
country. Hinckley lives and
works in the New
York area.
Katheryn Holt
Regarding her work for Natural Beauty, we asked Holt "Why these women, and why
now?" She responded:
In these cold and violent times in which we find ourselves, it
seems to me we need more than ever some escape into the warmth and fanciful
healing powers that conscious memory can possess. Indeed
these paintings of women on the beach are the embodiment of that for me.
In this capacity, they are neither rendered photo-realistically nor are
they on trend with our current media - driven ideals about
what a woman's body ought to look like, clothed or not.
Rather they are placed into historical context and shaped more
characteristically by classical standards of beauty found in Renaissance
painting, as well as the Hollywood idealized
film starlets from the 1940s and 1950s. Looking away from the
viewer, they are more fully able to lose themselves in their gaze upon their
past and the details of the memories within. I dream of my
own life spent growing up in the warmth of the sun on the beach.
The creation of the women in these paintings resurrects memories of
family, providing a meditation on the natural beauty of a time and place I might
otherwise have lost.
Holt has also had over a dozen one or two artist
exhibits on the west and east coasts, as
well as countless group exhibitions. She studied Master
Painting at the Slade School in
London, studied at the University of Southern California and received her BFA from The Art Center College of Design in
Los Angeles. She has been an instructor at The School of Visual
Arts, a frequent lecturer and writer on the subject of art and illustration, and
her work graces homes and corporate collections throughout the country. Ms. Holt
divides her time between studios in Northern California and
New York City.
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