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Scenes Both Quiet &
Miraculous ...
In our premiere issue, DownStreet's Arts & Craft is pleased to feature the work of Sharyn Layfield, a local Vermont artist from up in Jerusalem. To see a sample of Sharyn's work, click here, or on the picture on the right. The Artist: Sharyn, who is also an award-winning short story writer, has been painting for years. However, it has only been more recently, since she moved up into the solitary, sometimes harsh environment of Jerusalem, with its spectacular view of Mount Abe, that she turned her attention to painting ... so much so that now, her writing holds only a somewhat distant second place. As Sharyn, who is fifty-one, explained it: "I think it's a function of the time in my life. As I've gotten older, I'm less interested in the verbal." That may be bad news for those who've read her writing. But if they also take pleasure in the visual, their loss as readers is more than compensated for by Sharyn's paintings. The Subject: As one might expect of an artist living in such a spectacular Vermont setting, Sharyn's themes include vistas of her mountain surroundings, like "Fall in Jerusalem" or "Under a Pink Cloud." There are others, too ... broad scenes of seemingly simple composition {"After the Harvest"}, and a fascination with country lanes with arched or overhanging trees, which result in images that are both vivid and soft {"Portal I" and "Portal II"}. There is also her apparent fascination with ponds, as well, both large and small, in which, somehow, more through color than perspective, she manages to evoke either the majestic or the intimate {"Spring in Jerusalem" and "Stark Mountain Pond"}. Among the mid-range imagery, there is the glory of saplings in "That Evening Sun," or the paradoxical lushness of "Fall Altitude." And among the close-up's, there is the labyrinth of colors with the simple title of "Pumpkins." Sharyn's love of animals, as well as her ability to draw rich colors out of earth tones, shows wonderfully in "Horses at Evening." And the human comes forward in the lovely and warm juxtaposition of an elderly woman and young child in "Lace Tree Vision." The Medium: Some of Sharyn's close-up's of vegetation are somewhat reminiscent, but only somewhat, of Georgia O'Keefe, who used to summer over in the Adirondacks, a region similar to the Jerusalem area where Sharyn lives. But O'Keefe was quick to leave the mountain and valley region for the Southwest after her husband, Alfred Steiglitz, died. Her reason, among others, was that the mountains and valleys had no color, just "too much green." But in Sharyn's paintings, lack of color is not something that would occur to even the most casual observer. Sharyn begins with a sanded Ersta 500-grade paper, followed by a drawing in charcoal. Then comes the first color, a layer of pastel. Sharyn then uses paint thinner in washes, building up subsequent layers of pastel. As she put it, her work is a time-consuming process of "building and spraying, building and spraying." The result? The Result: Sharyn achieves a depth of color in soft yet rich tones and hues that is not only unusual, but intriguing. And, as already noted, her themes, while seemingly common landscapes when you describe them, are somehow transformed into something much more, something both inviting & evocative. Not your everyday landscape artist, then, Sharyn's work is both beautiful and haunting, quiet and miraculous. Where
to See the Work: Sharyn had several paintings on view at Greetings, on the
south side of Main Street in
Bristol, through mid-October, her first show since a display in Middlebury several
months ago. She is next having a Studio Sale, along with the Raku
{sawdust-fired} pottery of Jean Kerr-Lewis, on Nov. 11th,
10-4, at 1265 Economou Rd., Huntington. The paintings are for sale. But Sharyn also now has
prints available. As she told us, while the time-consuming process means
that she could "probably make more working at Autumn Harp or the Grand
Union," still, the cost of the paintings may be too high for some people
who'd still like to have a copy." The prints, she says, "make
the work accessible to those who can't afford the painting itself." ******* ******* Visit the DownStreet Gallery: Of course, although they cannot compare to the originals or the prints, you can also see a sample of her work here at the DownStreet Gallery. Simply click here. ... ******* ******* |
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