Deborah Sears

DEBORAH SEARS

CAAF Residency st[art]@art central, September – November 2013

 

 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

I am a Canadian painter, printer and quilt-maker. I see the close ties between nature and geometry. I express this relationship through the artistic elements of rhythm, harmony, and texture.

Multiples of repeated, reversed, reflected, or rotated regular shapes found in geometrics and embedded in the prairie homesteads and the patchwork quilts of my pioneer grandmothers, feature prominently in my art.

I thread my oeuvre between the sharp clean line and the strong painterly stroke in my geometrical and expressionist abstract paintings and original prints.

My limited palette combines the primary red, yellow and blue of childhood, with the earthy sienna, ochre and umber of early civilizations. I have been known to use unmixed white and black, as though they were singular colours.

Landscape always finds its way into my aesthetic. Often the skyscapes over waves of prairie fields and mountain crests serve as backdrops to my formulaic line configurations and my wild abandon expressions.

My paintings and original prints are understated, suggesting rather than pronouncing the social, contextual statements underlying my work. During my artist residency, I would like to engage with other artists and viewers in this discourse as I work in the studio with colours suggesting immaturity, on cotton canvas and rag paper. I will also explore bringing a needle and thread, associated with the feminine gender and my cultural heritage, to the mix.