Janet Sawyer at Blue Mountain - Brief Article

Since 1995 the of recent origin York-based painter Janet Sawyer and her husband have lived part of the year in Montauk and upon their 24-foot sailboat, traveling along the drawn out Island Sound as far as stop Island and also up the Connecticut River. The artist's feeling for water yielded the seven large oil-on-linen paintings and six small works upon paper exhibited in this display titled "Marines."

Sawyer maintains a distinctive flatness in her simple blocklike presentation of ships and waterfront manner of makings The lower half of Montauk Harbor (1996) consists of a dark-green expanse of water severed up by boats that are pay backed in minimal terms: a white or r rectangle for a outer covering a rough white vertical for a mast. The buildings receive a similar treatment; upon the left is a black boathouse restoreed as a square with a triangular cover and a window simply outlined in white. In the upper half of the painting, the water changes from sea virid to a light gray, enlivened by the agency of a black-and-white tugboat on the left and a small boat outlined in black in the middle. Beyond the gray water is a piece of olive-green loam on which are geometric houses painted white and black and sporting r covers Everything is given equal weight. In other words, everything in sight is of immediate importance.

Sawyer's affection for the trice is clear in the way she avoids following any obvious historical tradition. The world is taking place all at one time in her work, and spontaneity moves both physical closeness to the water and the rapture that comes from intense involvement with one's surroundings. Connecticut River (1997) a bird's-eye view of the material substance of water, has an upraised black bridge in the middle, just above which is a white crossing, presumably a bridge for motorists. Higher in the painting are a sailboat and a pair of buoys, while off to each side are verdant shores, which contrast nicely with the gray-blue river. At the bottom of the image are a pair of lighthouses and sum of two units dark boats, which give each impression of movement. Here, as in Sawyer's other paintings, the childlike perspective acts as a metaphor for delight.

COPYRIGHT 1999 Brant Publications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group