June 2025
Exhibition of new watercolors by Sarah Bienvenu, celebrates 45 years of plein aire and studio painting in New Mexico. Sarah Bienvenu’s paintings begin when she is hiking and exploring the landscapes of the region. Sarah arrives with her art supplies stacked in her back pack at locations with beautiful vistas. She unpacks her art supplies, and records what she observes with spontaneous and breathtaking watercolor paintings. Sarah creates compositions that describe patterns, textural complexity, and nuance of nature. Gallery owner Karla Winterowd says, “This artist’s approach to painting is unique. Though it is clear she studied and admires modernist painters of the past, her work is not derivative. Her style is purely hers alone. Sarah’s paintings are vibrant in color and subdued as required from an extremely observant eye. Trees, rocks, streams, and sky are engaged in harmony. All of nature intertwines to create a landscape that is buoyant and alive. She has a unique point of view and approach to her beautifully expressive paintings.”
Sarah Bienvenu says, “In order to paint the sense of the landscape, I need to be out in the natural world. I work at looking closely and being deliberate about describing each place I visit. My subject is nature and I aspire to work as close to my experience using abstraction to better describe what I perceive. It may just be my point of view, but I paint what I see and I see what I paint.”
