The Green Flower - Painting by Sarah Myers

The Green Flower, Sarah Myers
Acrylic on canvas, 2019

She glances downward gently, lips smiling at some pleasant, quiet thought.  Long, simple lines form the shapes, head elegantly poised on the neck with its graceful curve.  At the top, a little burst of acid-green marks the bloom she wears pinned in her hair, a bright hue which stops and accentuates the lengthy contours creating the rest of the image.  She is surrounded by a warm atmosphere of rose-pink and vibrant orange bordering on brown.  Behind her, blue shades toward the realm of purple and lilac.  Acrylic on canvas, 2019.

The Green Flower, Sarah Myers, detail of face.

The Green Flower, Sarah Myers, detail of flower.

The Green Flower, Sarah Myers, detail.

Two Ladies and Sky - Drawings by Sarah Myers

Lady with a Flock of Sparrows, Sarah Myers
Charcoal on paper, 2019

A lady with a flock of sparrows fluttering in the air behind her, the whirl of their wings echoing the spiral of the long ringlets trailing down her shoulder… and a woman staring earnestly out at us from a background filled with climbing, billowing clouds which mirror her bouffant bows, her frills and edges of lace. These two drawings are part of a recent collection of artwork in charcoal, sketched with simple lines across large sheets of paper. The darker, stronger charcoal contours follow paler pencil lines which form the preparatory stage.

I am happy to finally return to my blog – after a long and very unintended absence – and to post these two sketches here.

Woman with Clouds, Sarah Myers
Drawing in charcoal, 2019

Lady with Sparrows, detail of face.
Sarah Myers

Woman with Clouds, Sarah Myers
Detail of face

Lady with Sparrows, detail of birds.
Sarah Myers

Woman with Clouds, detail
Sarah Myers

Eris with the Apple of Discord - Sculpture by Sarah Myers

Eris with the Apple of Discord, Sarah Myers

Eris with the Apple of Discord, Sarah Myers
2018, terracotta

     The precious fruit poised in her hand, she turns, watching for her moment; heavy cloak clutched tightly across her side but right arm lightly lifted to aim. Her eyes glow with a sudden spark…
    In Greek legend, Eris – Discord – stirred by mischief, secretly brings a golden apple inscribed “To the Fairest” with her to a wedding feast on Mount Olympus, and, at the height of the revels, tosses it into the midst of the celebrating deities. The treasure, claimed and counter-claimed by the most powerful goddesses of the Grecian theogony, causes a quarrel which wreaks havoc on the serenity of the divine abode, and this squabble in its turn causes the grief and pain of the Trojan War among mortals far below.
    I have never been able to feel that the gravity of the results could place a greater responsibility Eris than on the other mightier beings that took the conflict so much farther; and her playful objectivity (after all, the apple could have remained hers) gives a certain sympathy to her place in the myth. So I chose this subject in spite of its mischievous, almost militant, nature, as I saw in it the possibility to capture a form I've long wanted to investigate; a sculptural moment that is both the height of action and a point of stillness and suspended motion. Her hand is just at that transition where the impetus will be imparted to the fruit, which will fly from her a fraction of a second later; and in the expression of her wide eyes and slightly parted lips, you can see her thoughts as she both anticipates the result of her deed and already sees it completed in her mind.
    And there is in this sculpture simply the abrupt glimpse of action conceived and taken, perhaps if abstracted into that one fragment of time, a thing that held the good of its own movement and beauty.

Eris, Sarah Myers
detail from below

Eris with the Apple of Discord
impressionistic detail of hand

Eris with the Apple of Discord, Sarah Myers
sculpture from back

Eris, Sarah Myers
detail of face

Eris with the Apple of Discord, Sarah Myers
Sculpture in terracotta

Head of a Woman - Sculpture by Sarah Myers

Head of a Woman, Sarah Myers

     Sometimes an artwork contains more than its creative or intellectual history - as in this sculpture, where a wholly unexpected event, an explosion in the kiln, left marks unintended in the original form. It still seems odd to think of so tranquil a personage flying apart while surrounded by white-hot coils three times the temperature of a baking-oven; but such was the case.
     As she now stands she is not only the outcome of creation and catastrophe but also some gentle remedying. Several days ago I placed the two largest pieces back together as best I could. Though some chips and ceramic splinters remain missing, as they had pulverized, she now appears much as she was first intended; a peaceful, heart-shaped face, the tilted head poised on a long, graceful neck. Half-classical, half modern; and now, with the fracture lines of her mishap - where no mending could conceal the warp produced by a fire of 1260 degrees celsius – perhaps a little post-modern as well.

Head of a Woman, Sarah Myers
Front, close-up

Head of a Woman, Sarah Myers
Sculpture in stoneware

Head of a Woman, detail.  Sarah Myers 

Head of a Woman, sculpture
Sarah Myers

Head of a Woman, Sarah Myers

The Hat - Painting by Sarah Myers

Hat, Sarah Myers
Acrylic on canvas

The lady leans forward in the shade of her brilliant red hat. Her chin rests on her hand and she looks just slightly pensive, lost in thought – but she is clearly ready for the summer, the sunlight and the long, bright days… Painted in acrylic on canvas.

Hat, Sarah Myers.  Detail

Hat
Painting by Sarah Myers

Face - Drawing by Sarah Myers

Face in Near-profile, Sarah Myers
Charcoal, conte, pencil, cut paper

    This is a drawing in charcoal, conte, and pencil; after the sketch was finished on light brown paper, the face was cut from the original sheet and backed with white bristol, projecting a sculptural effect.

Face, detail
Sarah Myers

Drawing, Head Tilted Upward - Art by Sarah Myers

Head Tilted Upward, Sarah Myers

A minimalist line-drawing in charcoal on paper.

Head Tilted Upward, Sarah Myers. Detail.

Simple Profile, Drawing by Sarah Myers

Simple Profile, Sarah Myers

     This large profile is in charcoal and conte on grayscale paper. Shading and highlights I have worked with a light hand. The piece is simple - the head of a woman turned almost to full profile (not absolute - there is still a glimpse of the far eyelid and lashes, and brow and chin are softened imperceptibly in angle). Her glance is downward and to the side away from us, but there is still a hint that we, the viewers, are present in her world.

Simple Profile, Sarah Myers, detail

Simple Profile, detail

Water-bearer in Charcoal and Conte, Sarah Myers

Water-bearer, Sarah Myers
Charcoal and Conte on grayscale paper

This drawing of a woman carrying an ornate water pitcher and a flask of perfume is related to a sculpture recently completed in clay.

Water-bearer, detail

Water-bearer, detail, Sarah Myers

Spring - Sculpture by Sarah Myers

Spring, Sarah Myers
Sculpture in red earthenware, life-scale

   Here is the Spring, smiling, with wreaths of lavish flowers in her hair...  Nestled in the blooms, small faces look up, just awakened or still half asleep.

   This sculpture is in fired red earthenware and is large life-scale.  It was created rapidly, during about four days' worth of sculpting, to avoid damage from drying; it is hollow-built.  The material is a new earthenware clay of splendid texture and tint; I worked it up it from a formula designed by Amy Myers.

    The style is essentially "New Baroque", used to express exhilaration and joy in the new world of spring.  Search carefully for the small faces of the flowers!

Spring, Sarah Myers

Detail, Spring, Face of a Flower
Sarah Myers

Spring, Sarah Myers

Spring, Detail, Face of a Flower
Sarah Myers

Spring, Detail, Hibiscus
Sarah Myers

Spring, Detail, Face of a Flower
Sarah Myers

Spring, Sarah Myers
Side

Spring, Detail, Face of a Flower-bud
Sarah Myers

Spring, Sarah Myers
Back

The Flautist, Sarah Myers
Charcoal and White Conte on Grayscale Paper

Inspired by the sixteenth century woodcuts of Tobias Stimmer, and by the spirit of music.  Drawing in charcoal highlighted with conte.

Flautist, Sarah Myers
Detail

Flautist, Sarah Myers
Detail of hands

Face of Peace - Charcoal Drawing

The Face of Peace
Sarah Myers, Charcoal and Conte on Grayscale Paper

Olive branches, a dove with outspread wings, and the face of Peace.

Face of Peace, detail
Sarah Myers, charcoal on paper