SARA MacCULLOCH Landscapes

Landscapes

SARA MACCULLOCH

On Cover (cropped):

Waves, 2014

Oil on canvas

16 x 16 in.

SARA MACCULLOCH

Landscapes

October 16th – November 15th, 2014 529 W.20th St, Ste. 6W

New York , NY 10011

Kathryn Markel Fine Arts is pleased to present

Landscapes a collection of new paintings by Nova Scotia-based painter

Sara MacCulloch

Marsh, 2014 Oil on canvas

48 x 48 in.

Kathryn Markel Fine Arts is pleased to present Landscapes, Sara MacCulloch’s third solo exhibition with the gallery.

The landscape has been a source of inspiration for Sara MacCulloch since childhood, when she spent summers and weekends in rural Nova Scotia exploring fields and shorelines. As a painter, her interest lies in exploring the connection between being in a landscape and looking at a painting of a landscape. In her newest body of work, she conveys not just the physical appearance of these places, but the emotional relationship she has built with them over the years.

This series was painted over the last year and is exclusively depictions of Halifax, Nova Scotia and the surrounding areas of the Minas Basin. She spends summers hiking and documenting the landscape with watercolor sketches and photographs. The rest of the year she expands these into larger oil paintings on canvas. Using broad, smooth brushstrokes, MacCulloch creates an inviting lushness out of earthy browns, cool blues, greens and greys.

MacCulloch begins her process with the feeling she wants to convey and allows herself to get lost in process of revealing it. Each work in this series was painted almost entirely in one sitting in order to focus on the most important elements of place and mood. The instant a painting is over-worked or does not come together in a day, MacCulloch scrapes it away to start anew, ensuring a sense of immediacy in her finished work. The results are gestural, yet resolved compositions that give us just enough information to understand the beauty of the place and emphasize being present in a fleeting moment. They are serene, subtle and still direct and honest.

Hedge, 2014 Oil on canvas

24 x 24 in.

Beach Grass Path, 2014 Oil on canvas

40 x 40 in.

Towards Wolfville, 2014 Oil on canvas

24 x 24 in.

Beach and Cloud, 2014 Oil on canvas

48 x 48 in.

Fields and Basin, 2014 Oil on canvas

16 x 16 in.

Artist Statement The landscape has always been important to me.

In my childhood, I spent all summer, every summer, as well as almost

every weekend throughout the year, at several different family homes in

rural Nova Scotia.

I spent days alone wandering the fields, woods and shorelines of those

places, developing a very strong attachment to them. The landscapes became almost like people, who I got to know better and better as each

year passed.

I still feel that same connection to the landscape, and although those

particular places are all gone now, I spend much time exploring, trying to

find new ones. I am always searching for that same feeling of connection

and belonging, of places that somehow feel familiar to the ones from my

childhood- whether they look the same or not.

It is to capture that feeling, when it happens, that I am drawn to paint

the landscape. I want to make permanent and solid that fleeting

feeling of connection I have in a moment in one particular place.

The challenge for me is not only to capture what a place looks like

but also to have a relationship with the painting as I am making it. I

don’t start with an exact idea of what the painting will be when I am

finished. All I know is what I want it to feel like- and I never really know

how that will come about.

I almost always do my paintings in one go- one session in the studio.

This is to allow for clarity in purpose, but also to give the work a sense

of immediacy. I want the paintings to be direct and fluid. There is a fine

line between overworked, unfinished, and resolved paintings, and I am

always trying to find that balance.

Look-off, 2014 Oil on canvas

48 x 48 in.

Beach and Rocks, 2014 Oil on canvas

16 x 16 in.

Across the Water, Evening, 2014 Oil on canvas

16 x 16 in.

Waves, 2014 Oil on canvas

16 x 16 in.

EDUCATION 1987 BFA, Painting, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, NS 1984 Concordia University, Montreal, QC

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2014 Landscapes, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, NY 2013 Paintings, Studio 21 Fine Art, Halifax, NS 2012 New Paintings, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, NY

New Landscapes, Studio 21 Fine Art, Halifax, NS 2010 New Paintings, Katharine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto, ON

Summer, Studio 21 Fine Art, Halifax, NS 2009 New Paintings, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, NY

Landscapes, Studio 21 Fine Art, Halifax, NS 2007 New Paintings, Studio 21 Fine Art, Halifax, NS 2006 Paintings, Wynick Tuck Gallery, Toronto, ON

New Work, Studio 21 Fine Art, Halifax, NS 2005 Paintings, Katharine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto, ON

New Work, Vanderleelie Gallery, Edmonton 2004 Studio 21 Fine Art, Halifax, NS 2002 Katharine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto, ON

Studio 21 Fine Art, Halifax, NS 2000 Studio 21 Fine Art, Halifax, NS 1998 Studio 21 Fine Art, Halifax, NS 1996 Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2011 Art Bank of Nova Scotia Exhibition, Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design, Sydney, NS 2010 Art Chicago, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, NY Affordable Art Fair, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, NY 2009 Aqua Miami Art Fair, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, NY

Dallas Art Fair, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York, NY 2008 Decade, Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects, Toronto, ON 2007 Home Town, Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery, Owen Sound, ON

Small Acres, Studio 21 Fine Art, Halifax, NS 2006 Stand, Wynick Tuck Gallery, Toronto, ON 2005 You don’t want to miss that s***, The Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, ON

Please Press Landscape, Wynick Tuck Gallery, Toronto, ON 2005 East Coast Cultural Festival, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON 2004 Breathing Room, Katharine Mulherin Art Projects, Toronto, ON

The Mom and Pop Shop, Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto , ON 2003 Landings: Case Studies, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON 2002 Richard and Dolly Maas Gallery, Purchase, NY 2001 Tea Party Three, Prime Gallery, Toronto, ON

Thin Lizzie, Zsa Zsa Gallery, Toronto, ON NSCAD Second Century, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS Celebrating the Works of Canadian Artists for HRH The Prince of Wales, Gooderham and Worts Distillery, Toronto, ON Into the Yukon, Wagner Rosenbaum Gallery, Toronto, ON

1999 Le Paysage Qui Nous Parles, York-Quay Gallery, Toronto, ON; Windsor Station, Montreal, QC

1994 In the Absence, St. Mary’s University, Halifax, NS

SELECTED AWARDS AND GRANTS 2013 Established Artist Award – Creative Nova Scotia 2011 Individual Grant- Nova Scotia Department of Tourism and Culture, Halifax, NS 2010 Individual Grant, Nova Scotia Department of Tourism and Culture, Halifax, NS 2009 Individual Grant, Nova Scotia Department of Tourism and Culture, Halifax, NS

Travel Grant, Canada Council for the Arts, Ottawa, Canada 2007 Individual Grant, Nova Scotia Department of Tourism and Culture, Halifax, NS 2005 Creation Grant, Mid Career Artist, Canada Council for the Arts, Halifax, NS 2003 Creation Grant, Emerging Artist, Canada Council for the Arts, Halifax, NS 2001 Travel Grant, Canada Council for the Arts, Ottawa, Canada 1993 The Brucebo Scholarship, Canadian-Scandinavian Foundation, Visby, Gotland,Sweden 1992  Endowment Fund Scholarship, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, NS

SELECTED COLLECTIONS Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS Avmor, Montreal, QC Bank of Montreal, Montreal, QC Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, ON Department of Foreign Affairs, Embassy Division Gotlands Kunstmuseum, Gotland, Sweden Heenan Blaikie Law Offices, Vancouver, BC LMG Communications, Toronto, ON Mulmur Publishing, Toronto, ON Nova Scotia Art Bank, Halifax, NS Project Art, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA Sheraton Hotels, Halifax, NS TAB Investco, Oakville, ON University of Toronto, Toronto, ON

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY “Beautiful Blends,” Hemispheres Magazine. November 2006. Barnard, Elyssa. “Paintings Evoke N.S.,” The Chronicle Herald Halifax. November 2, 2013. Barnard, Elyssa. “Back to the Land,” The Chronicle Herald. September 24, 2000. Barnard, Elyssa, “Different Strokes,” The Chronicle Herald. May 19, 2007. Barnard, Elyssa. “Dispensing with Detail,” The Chronicle Herald. March 24, 2006. Barnard, Elyssa. “Luminous Landscapes,” The Chronicle Herald. September 11, 2004. Barnard, Elyssa. “Landscapes Lushly Beckon,” The Chronicle Herald. May 17, 1996 Barnard, Elyssa. “You want to step into dreamy landscapes,” The Chronicle Herald. July 11, 2010. Clarke, Bill. “(t)art,” Gay Guide Toronto. 2004. Decoste, Patrick. “Shotgun Reviews,” Lola Magazine. Issue 15, Spring 2003. Esplund, Lance. “A New York School Standout and other shows worth seeing: Sara MacCulloch at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts,” The Wall Street Journal. November 8, 2009. Goodrich, John. “Sara MacCulloch: New Painting,” CityArts. October 21, 2009. Guy, Greg. “Artist MacCulloch to show paintings to Prince Charles,” The Sunday Herald, April 29, 2001. McAllister, Lesley. “Nature Lovers,” NOW Magazine. Vol. 20, No. 22, 2001. Shuebrook, Ron. “Sara MacCulloch: Paintings,” Studio 21 Fine Art, Halifax. 2013.

529 W. 20th Street, Ste. 6W New York, NY 10011