Golden Hills, 2016
12 x 16 inches | oil on linen
Sarah Vedder is an American Landscape artist. She attended The Colorado College, where she studied art. She also spent four years studying life drawing with Jorgen Hansen. She was originally an Abstract Expressionist, but embarked on a new body of work after being exposed to American Tonalism. Sarah Vedder is a longstanding member of Santa Barbara's OAK GROUP (the Outdoor Art Klub founded by Ray Strong, Arturo Tello, and Michael Drury.)
Her strong focus on controlling the contrast (or values) in painting, along with the careful build up of glazes softens the scenery in her landscape paintings. The effect is dreamy, evoking a memory of an Arcadian California.
IF THE JOB OF THE ARTIST IS TO REVEAL NEW EXPERIENCES, the exhibition Where the Wild Things Grow has succeeded. Even if you've been to the magnificent Ganna Walska Lotusland gardens, you'll see the place anew thanks to 28 different artists who have transferred their Lotusland experience onto paper, sculpture, and paintings. If you listen carefully, you can hear the plants talk.
With the country battered by the pandemic, a hotly contested election, the nation’s capitol invaded by rioters and an atmosphere marked by dread and hysteria, curators at Sullivan Goss-An American Gallery in downtown Santa Barbara felt this community could use a space for peace and contemplation.
Drawing from its artists’ studios, collector consignments and its own treasure vault, the gallery staff has assembled 16 works spanning from 1890 to today that invite a meditative or peaceful state of mind.
The exhibition is open for socially distant viewing through March 1. Gallery visits are limited to eight mask-wearing guests at a time. The exhibit is also available online.
You can start 2021 with some “Peace & Quiet.”
An exhibit devoted to quiet, contemplative works will be on display Jan. 8 through March 1 at Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery, 11 E. Anapamu St.
The gallery is open for socially distance viewing. Visits are limited to eight mask-wearing guests at one time.
Battered by the pandemic, a contentious election, and an atmosphere of alarm, curators at Sullivan Goss - An American Gallery in Santa Barbara felt the community could use a space for peace and contemplation.
Drawing from its artists' studios, collector consignments, and its own treasure vault, Sullivan Goss assembled 16 works spanning 1890 to today that invite a meditative or peaceful state of mind at its gallery, 11 E. Anapamu St. The show runs Jan. 8-March 1.
AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK
I want to make my work reflective and emotionally resonant. I use a limited palette, in keeping with the contemporary art precept of creating richness of result with economy of means. I am interested in relative value, and in using composition to support the emotional content of the painting. I have been influenced by the tonalist movement in American art, with its emphasis on the essential aspect of a landscape rather than the specific or incidental. My goal is to awaken an emotional response in the viewer. — Sarah Vedder
Sarah Vedder was originally trained as an Abstract Expressionist. The artist notes that painting of that sort requires commitments of time and energy that she couldn't make as a mother of two children. Eventually, her children grew up and she returned to painting. As the environmental movement galvanized in Santa Barbara with Ray Strong's Oak Group of painters, Sarah found an artistic project she could really get behind.
Her paintings still reflect a solid understanding of various formalist concerns that would have been important to early modernist and abstract expressionist artists. At the same time, her palette suggests contemporary tonalism. In each of her works, a reverence for untouched nature sings through softly painted scenes. The soft edges of mountains, clouds, marshes, and clusters of chaparral evoke the memory of a time when the land was still virgin.
EDUCATION
Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO
AWARDS & AFFILIATIONS
1997-2001 California Art Club Gold Medal Show, Pasadena, CA
1997-2002 Artist Member, Oak Group, Santa Barbara, CA
2002 Honorable Mention, Santa Barbara County Art Fund, Santa Barbara, CA
EXHIBITIONS
2005 "Anima Mundi", Sullivan Goss, Santa Barbara, CA
2003, 2002 Sullivan Goss, Ltd., Montecito, CA
2002 Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA
1998-2002 Marin Agricultural Land Trust, Marin, CA
2000, 1998, 1993 Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara, CA
1998 Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA
1997, 1996 California Heritage Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1996, 1995, 1994, 1992, 1990-87 Faulkner Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
1999, 1997 Nature Conservancy, Santa Cruz Island, CA
1996 Ellen Easton Gallery, Montecito, CA
1993 The Columbia Club Foundation, Indianapolis, IN
1992 C.I. Clark Galleries, Bakersfield, CA
1992-87 Arlington Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
1977, 1975 Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, CA
