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

Horse on Silver - Painting by Sarah Myers

Horse on Silver, Sarah Myers

A horse - alert glance and backward tilted ears showing its liveliness - arches its neck, looming against a background of reflective silver. This is a large canvas and makes a very strong impact on the wall. It was painted in acrylic and metallic acrylic.

Horse on Silver, Sarah Myers
Detail

A Favourite Sculpture - Art by Sarah Myers

Minerva in Pearls, Sarah Myers

With her gentle smile, lowered eyes, pearl necklace and tall helmet, this sculpture remains one of my favourites I have made, and my largest. She is life-scale or perhaps a little more.

Minerva in Pearls, Sarah Myers
Close-up

She was inspired from a sixteenth-century portrait of a young Dutch woman, Margarita Trip. The artist Ferdinand Bol dressed her in costume as Minerva and portrayed Margarita teaching her younger sister Maria Trip. I think in my sculpture I have used the mythological reference slightly more seriously and as a more intregal part - not indeed as homage to the Greek deity Athena (Minerva), but abstractly in praise of wisdom and the wisdom of elder sisters in particular.

Minerva in Pearls, Sarah Myers
Sculpture in stoneware

A sculpture this size takes a huge amount of clay. In this case, she consists of stoneware I mixed by hand and kneaded carefully to remove air pockets. The recipe was designed by my sister Amy Myers - it is a clay of some resistance and strength even in its raw form. The sculpture was then built over a period of three days. I work directly into the clay with a rapidity which is partly to avoid the damage that too-early drying can create, but also to preserve the spontaneity and immediacy of the human touch.

Minerva in Pearls, side view

    All art and photography by Sarah Myers

Minerva in Pearls, Sarah Myers
Detail of face and helmet

Minerva in Pearls, Sarah Myers

Large Still-Life with Pumello - Painting by Sarah Myers

Still-life with Pumello, Sarah Myers

In this very large still-life are two warm red, earthenware vessels, hand-built by my sister, Amy Myers; around and inside the clay pots are fruit, dark grapes and an enormous, yellow-green pumello. The colour of the pumello is, as depicted in the picture, a bracing chartreuse; it is a plump fruit, ancestor of the grapefruit, with thicker rind and blander taste. It is slightly flattened, and for the painting's composition I actually propped it upright on the single grape you see under it to the right. The rest of the grape cluster, climbing from the earthenware bowl, fills the space left between bowl and the tall red pot. The artwork is acrylic on canvas.

Still-Life with Pumello, Sarah Myers
Detail

Detail

Still-Life with Pumello, Sarah Myers
Detail of grapes

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

Still-Life with Red Pitcher - Sarah Myers

Still-Life with Red Pitcher, Sarah Myers
Acryllic on Canvas

Detail, Still-Life with Red Pitcher

The central form in this still-life is a pitcher, or Oinochoe, in warm red earthenware, created by Amy Myers.  A pomegranate and lemons roll among folds of linen.

Pomegranate from Still-Life with Red Pitcher

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

Painting. Figure: Ocean S. Myers

Figure: Ocean    S. Myers, Acrylic on Canvas  2013

     My newest painting began with inspiration from Baroque maps, where figures personifying seasons, continents, and oceans stand on either side or recline at the bottom, ornamenting already elaborate and fantastic charts.

      But I was also looking at pictures of Brazilian interiors.  And I was full of the colors and enchanting vistas of Raoul Dufy. So as I spread the brilliant blue, the brown, and the mica/iron gold paint on the canvas, I resolved, not to hold to a single influence, simply to create something that would show very well on a wall.