Dreams & A Blue Sky Day, 2019. Mixed media assemblage, 48 x 36″. sold

Down by the River, 2019. Mixed media assemblage, 46 x 40″, 48 x 41″ framed sold

Cold AM Sunrise, 2018. Oil & mixed media on canvas, 40 x 40”. sold

Summering Grounds & Grasses,2018. Mixed Media on Canvas, 40 x 40″. sold

Passages, 2019. Oil & mixed media on canvas, 40 x 40″   sold

Sairey’s Land, 2018. Mixed media on paper, 42 x 36″  sold

Eve, Sister of Sairey, 2018. Mixed media on paper, 42 x 36″ sold

Streamside, 2019. Oil and mixed media on canvas, 40 x 40″  sold

Waiting on the Light, 2019. Pigment and mixed media on paper, 42 x 32″ sold

Summer Rhythm, 2019. Oil and mixed media on canvas, 48 x 48″ sold

Blue Forest II, 2018.  Mixed media on paper,  51 x 36″ paper, 57 x 42″ framed 

Pathway, 2019. Mixed media on canvas, 48 x 56″  sold

Grasses & Creek, 2019. Oil on canvas, 30 x 24″ sold

Wading, 2019. Oil an mixed media on canvas, 30 x 24″ sold

No-one Imagined, 2018. Oil and mixed media on canvas, 30 x 24” sold

Soft Soft Morning, 2018. Oil and mixed media on canvas, 30 x 24” sold

Grace in the Hilltops II, 2017. Oil on canvas, 24 x 30” sold

Spoken in a Dream, 2019. Mixed media on canvas, 48 x 52”. sold

Again & Again, 2019. Mixed media on canvas, 42 x 48″ sold

 

 

 

“A child said What is the grass?  fetching it to me with full hands;”   
– Walt Whitman ‘Song of Myself’
 

Field Days is comprised of work initiated out ‘in the field’.  Long walks, observations, collected objects.  Begun with what the land provides, this diverse body of work is a tribute to the land I love.
 
Over this past year, I have frequently visited the writings of Walt Whitman. A poet of the everyman, I find inspiration in his use of our nation’s landscape to describe our diverse yet common humanity. 
Possibly these spaces represent what is ‘best’ about our country and provide a platform for unity. 
 
If mountains are our heart, the rivers are our soul; the streams our everyday; the forests our history…both the good and the bad of it.  
 

Artist’s Statement

“The world as it is would always be a reminder of the world that was, and of the world that is to come.”  — Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow*
 
My work is rooted in a love of land. It speaks to the hallowed nature of place and the importance of land ethic.
 
The patterns and rhythms of nature continually inspire. Color variations of a grass field, shadows on a forest floor, shifting light and atmosphere. Increasingly, I seek to combine these visual narratives with the histories of place. How can we hold the stories of these lands to bring about curiosity, or discomfort or convey new ideas? Past, present and future collide. Imagined combines with real, abstraction with representation.
 
In the tradition of en plein air, my process begins out on the land.  There I sketch, paint, template and collect artifacts which inform my studio practice. Materials are central to these discussions. My work combines layers of paint, ink, graphite, and other materials to simultaneously construct and deconstruct. 
 
A recent exploration of more dimensional assemblages has allowed me to introduce new materials such as found objects and cyanotypes. These pieces have expanded my ability to highlight the stories of specific geographic and historical sites. As a process painter and artist, I have an affinity for mark making and the freedom of the Abstract Expressionists. Each work resolves at varying levels of abstraction, with the goal of luring the viewer into a personal sense of place and time.
 
*Berry, Wendell. Jayber Crow: A Novel. Washington, D.C: Counterpoint, 2000. Print.
 

Les Yeux du Monde is pleased to present

Susan McAlister: Field Days

28 September –  2 November 2019

Les Yeux du Monde is pleased to present Susan McAlister: Field Daysfrom 28 September through 2 November 2019. McAlister writes: “Field Days is comprised of work initiated out ‘in the field’. Long walks, observations, collected objects. Begun with what the land provides, this diverse body of work is a tribute to the land I love.” Included will be the gestural and painterly landscape paintings in oil and mixed media she is well known and loved for, as well as multi-media pieces that hover between representation and abstraction, these veering more toward the abstract. She also will introduce some new more three-dimensional assemblage paintings that are created with cut outs a la Matisse and also actual objects she has picked up in her “field” work.  This new direction she explains allows her to tell the stories of specific geographic and historical sites, which has become increasingly important to her.

Another inspiration for the work in this show is Walt Whitman. McAlister writes: “A poet of the everyman, I find inspiration in his use of our nation’s landscape to describe our diverse yet common humanity. Possibly these spaces represent what is ‘best’ about our country and provide a platform for unity. If mountains are our heart, the rivers are our soul; the streams our everyday; the forests our history…both the good and the bad of it.”

McAlister grew up in the Hunt Country of Virginia and now resides in Charlotte NC, but the sea and skyscapes of South Carolina and Montana are inspiration for her work as well as travels, most recently to Iceland. Her work is in many private and public collections (including the University of Virginia Health Care System and the Boar’s Head Inn Resort) and has been shown in museums and galleries throughout the south.

There will be an opening Reception with the artist on Saturday, 28 September, from 4:30 – 6:30. For more information consult our website www.lydm.coor call 434-973-5566 or email LYDMGallery@gmail.com