EFA STUDIO PROGRAM: Member Artists
Sarah Leahy
I am a painter, I observe the ordinary moments around us that can be quite beautiful. My work emotes a quiet luminosity and tactile presence, capturing people, places and the light within.
I am interested in the presence a painted image can have. How it can cause you to pause, as you slow down and move close to look, feel it’s emotional undercurrent and experience its actual physicality.
Currently I am making multi-panel paintings which are installed side by side and read together. The work is non-narrative, the imagery compounds, the poetic compression creating a vivid and affecting presence. People, spaces, landscape or cityscape, the images are from everyday life and are neither sentimental nor voyeuristic. They are straightforward, presenting particular moments to experience. This invites the viewer to appreciate their own individual context and response.
The images are made through a unique process I have developed painting multiple layers of delicate ink washes onto the front side of sanded plexiglass. Slowly I build to soft grays and deep blacks, while alternately removing areas of ink with sandpaper to yield a luminous white. Darker areas are the accumulation of ink while lighter areas are sanded out, allowing you to view the wall surface through the translucent glass. The plexiglass holds refracted light within each pane, bringing about a mysteriously layered presence.
