Claire Sherman is an American painter currently living and working in New York City. I first learned about her work in a recent Landscapes class with Fran O’Neill. I admired the use of color and form as each brush stroke popped and slid me around the composition. She is a direct painter who, like Sargent, will redo a brush stroke over and over, until it gives the appearance that it was done with ease.
In NY Art Beat, curator Melissa Messina describes Sherman’s paintings as “vast entanglements, synthesized mixes of plant life and geographical phenomena that in their detail maintain a sense of specificity but in combination intentionally do not scribe an exact location. They are every place at once or no place at all.”
Sherman’s work was inspired by environmental author Elizabeth Kolbert who described the consequences of global travel as a “reshuffling of the biosphere that is bringing all of the worlds flora and fauna together.” In her paintings, Sherman explores climate change and the effects of invasive species as they crowd out natives. The cycle of invasion, chaos, and growth are seen within Sherman’s tangled forms. This beautiful yet ominous new world is central to Sherman’s work. (NY Art Beat)
Grass and Ferns, 2019, Oil on canvas, 60×54”
I’ve been thinking about pathways and directionals lately. Sherman’s work is loaded with them! Notice how she directs our gaze up, down, in and around the canvas. Notice too the speed of our travel. Some of her works move quickly and smoothly like highways (Vines). Others dart me around like a pinball (Tree at Night) or give me one quick shove up and over (Tree). As you look at these, please do also look at the size of each – many are quite large, so these compositional moves must be quite dramatic when viewed in person.
Vines, 2018, Oil on canvas, 84×66”
Tree and Night, 2015, Oil on canvas, 84 x 72″ Tree, 2014, Oil on canvas, 108 x 84″
Last Thursday I posted over 100 orange artworks. Now there are more! Image right: A Dalecarlian horse is a traditional carved, painted wooden statue of a horse originating in the Swedish province of Dalarna (Dalecarlia). Several different types of Dalecarlian horses are made, with distinguishing features common to the locality of the site where they are produced. This one is from around 1950 and is …
I’ve been talking about the the idea that shapes in a composition can be activated to hold each other in place. In this way, there is no background and no object, there is only the interaction of shapes on the surface of the canvas. Everything in the picture holds everything else in place. Intervals I’d …
[image_with_animation image_url=”10515″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Photo and painting of JS Sargent’s teacher Carolus-Duran. Painting not made from photo. Photo taken (possibly?) to resemble the painting. Posted by James Gurney Would you be surprised to see that a painter who depended on patrons’ funds applied a bit of painterly flattery to his portraits? Take a …
I love a good heist movie. Here’s a news article that would make a great movie: one where the librarian steals the paintings by replacing them with fakes, and then those paintings get stolen, replaced by worse fakes. Get the popcorn! Chinese Librarian Switched Out $17M in Paintings…With Fakes He Painted Himself But the thief …
Claire Sherman
Claire Sherman is an American painter currently living and working in New York City. I first learned about her work in a recent Landscapes class with Fran O’Neill. I admired the use of color and form as each brush stroke popped and slid me around the composition. She is a direct painter who, like Sargent, will redo a brush stroke over and over, until it gives the appearance that it was done with ease.
In NY Art Beat, curator Melissa Messina describes Sherman’s paintings as “vast entanglements, synthesized mixes of plant life and geographical phenomena that in their detail maintain a sense of specificity but in combination intentionally do not scribe an exact location. They are every place at once or no place at all.”
Sherman’s work was inspired by environmental author Elizabeth Kolbert who described the consequences of global travel as a “reshuffling of the biosphere that is bringing all of the worlds flora and fauna together.” In her paintings, Sherman explores climate change and the effects of invasive species as they crowd out natives. The cycle of invasion, chaos, and growth are seen within Sherman’s tangled forms. This beautiful yet ominous new world is central to Sherman’s work. (NY Art Beat)
I’ve been thinking about pathways and directionals lately. Sherman’s work is loaded with them! Notice how she directs our gaze up, down, in and around the canvas. Notice too the speed of our travel. Some of her works move quickly and smoothly like highways (Vines). Others dart me around like a pinball (Tree at Night) or give me one quick shove up and over (Tree). As you look at these, please do also look at the size of each – many are quite large, so these compositional moves must be quite dramatic when viewed in person.
Woodblocks
Artist’s website: https://www.clairesherman.com/
http://www.gorkysgranddaughter.com/2014/03/claire-sherman-feb-2014.html
Related Posts
More Orange Artworks
Last Thursday I posted over 100 orange artworks. Now there are more! Image right: A Dalecarlian horse is a traditional carved, painted wooden statue of a horse originating in the Swedish province of Dalarna (Dalecarlia). Several different types of Dalecarlian horses are made, with distinguishing features common to the locality of the site where they are produced. This one is from around 1950 and is …
Sargy Mann: finding your way blind from point to point
I’ve been talking about the the idea that shapes in a composition can be activated to hold each other in place. In this way, there is no background and no object, there is only the interaction of shapes on the surface of the canvas. Everything in the picture holds everything else in place. Intervals I’d …
The Charismatic Flattery of JS Sargent
[image_with_animation image_url=”10515″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Photo and painting of JS Sargent’s teacher Carolus-Duran. Painting not made from photo. Photo taken (possibly?) to resemble the painting. Posted by James Gurney Would you be surprised to see that a painter who depended on patrons’ funds applied a bit of painterly flattery to his portraits? Take a …
Fakes Stolen, Replaced with Fakes Stolen, Replaced
I love a good heist movie. Here’s a news article that would make a great movie: one where the librarian steals the paintings by replacing them with fakes, and then those paintings get stolen, replaced by worse fakes. Get the popcorn! Chinese Librarian Switched Out $17M in Paintings…With Fakes He Painted Himself But the thief …