Campsite, 30″ x 40″, acrylic on panel.

Dynamic Ecosystems of Colour

By Deena Dolan

Playfully pushing paint past the picture plane, Sarah Carlson invites the viewer to step into her joyful ecosystems of colour, movement and texture.

Expansive sunsets and vibrant abstracted landscapes are recurring themes in Sarah Carlson’s most recent works. Her scenes pulsate with positive energy and spill over with enthusiasm. One simply can’t help but smile as her luminous colour combinations vibrate and dance across the canvas, evoking an infectious high-spirited joy.

Sarah credits her mother, an artist in her own right, with having been her biggest supporter in pursuing art—always providing paint and craft materials and teaching her basic techniques. “My earliest memory of art was drawing with my mother on a restaurant napkin.” Her father has a background in civil engineering. “He is very resourceful which is definitely a trait he’s passed on,” says Sarah. “He would always involve my brother and I in projects growing up and his drive for problem solving is contagious.” Both parents encouraged creative play and were always there to help out. Sarah recalls getting her hands on the family video camera at some point and she started shooting movies with elaborate homemade sets, wacky costumes and makeup. “This fostered a love for both painting and filmmaking which I explored at York University during my BFA.”

Above All, 36″ x 48″, acrylic on panel.

Indeed, in 2009, Sarah earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) degree in Cinema & Media Arts—Production at York University. While there she was involved in the making of several short films, some of which received awards from Kodak as well as the YoungCuts Film Festival. Since 2001, this festival has been helping filmmakers find ways to improve their chances of competing in the highly competitive film and television industries. After graduation Sarah worked on some commercial projects but transitioned into teachers college during the economic downturn of 2008/2009 and earned her B.Ed. from the University of Toronto in 2010.

To deepen her knowledge, in 2019 Sarah earned a Master’s degree in Fine Arts at OCAD University. The program focuses on exploring interdisciplinary processes in art, media and design. “As a painter with a film production background seemed to be a good fit for me. This led me to tap into my love for installation, building immersive artworks that you could climb on or crawl inside which seemed to best express the environmental feminist theories I was engaging with at the time. That said, looking back as a painter at heart, I wish painting was more the focus of my research at the time as I think there are so many interesting directions I could have taken that perhaps may have better served me in my current exploration of abstracted landscapes. Overall however, I found the intense program to be a rich time of artbased research.”

Clockwise from left; Algonquin Paddle, 16″ x 16″, acrylic on panel. Your Love is My Home, 40″ x 30″, acrylic on panel.

In researching Sarah’s work, I happened on an article from 2016 by Samaa Ahmed FAC Blog Editor. A recurring theme in Sarah’s work from that time embodied the idea of our natural world inhabiting the human body, and the body being part of natural world. Describing her work during that period Sarah explained, “The way I use materials, utilize colour and line, and feature specific imagery reflects a holistic experiential engagement.”

Over the years, Sarah’s work has become more open. “While I love getting wrapped up in painting figurative details, I’ve allowed myself to loosen up and embrace play more as I paint.” The process of ‘loosening up’ is one that many artists struggle with, myself included. Learning to play and experiment with various materials, working with larger brushes, and utilizing tools like palette knives, wedges, and paint scrapers have all helped Sarah embrace a variety of aesthetic possibilities. Sarah strives to incorporate interconnections in her paintings—movement, colour, and texture—key ingredients necessary in achieving her desired results. On her website, there is a wonderfully candid video where she explains her process and her thinking. She tells of exploring the addition of sawdust, coffee grounds, or simply dried bits of old paints onto her canvas to create the organic texture she’s seeking. It all works.

Golden Sky, 24″ x 24″, oil and acrylic on panel.

Though she certainly loves the range of textures and chromatic effects working with oil can bring, as a busy mom of two children often popping into the studio, Sarah finds acrylics are her ‘go-to’ currently. “I’ve found a way to explore different mediums to create the thick texture I want in acrylic. Right now, I am mostly working within paint, but sometimes the texture of that paint gets quite unruly and may start to span into the realm of sculpture. Mural painting is another area I work in, which has its own visual language separate from my textural landscape paintings, but there is overlap there as well.”

As a full-time artist, time spent creating a piece could range from a week to several months. “It’s a juggle for sure! Kiddo nap and bedtimes are usually a solid block of time I can rely on to get work done. I typically have several paintings on the go at one time. It is fun to hop around and to see how they interact with each other in the space. I find one will inform another or maybe help to solve a problem with a different painting.”

In the Stillness, 40″ x 48″, acrylic on panel.

Sarah’s process most often begins during a hike or painting en plein air with her French easel. “I’ll photograph or create a painting sketch of a landscape, which I will bring back into the studio. At that point, I’ll begin translating the composition into a larger format on panel. Usually, my underpainting is some hot colour like pink, orange, or purple. I’ll block in the initial composition using chalk or another electric colour that will sort of vibrate as it peeks through the layers of paint that follow. Then I’ll work with larger, more gestural brushes to map the initial forms of light and dark, gradually integrating smaller brushes to describe the space.”

Spending time outside is vitally important for Sarah. “I find it helps bring everything into balance, lowering stress, which reduces inflammation, etc. At the same time, I find it life-giving and energizing, allowing for a powerful reset. The biophilia hypothesis, as Edward O. Wilson described in 1984, speaks to this tendency for humans to seek connections with nature because these connections are innate within us. There is a false separation between humans and nature, which I’ve always been fascinated by, and I just love painting dynamic, interconnected environments that spill past the picture plane into lived space.”

Blissful Calm, 18″ x 60″, acrylic on panel.

Clouds on the Bay, 18″ x 60″, acrylic on panel.

Gratitude, 12″ x 48″, acrylic on panel.

True passion for natural-world environments is showcased and interwoven within each work. “I’ve explored a myriad of subjects but always come back to environmental themes and interconnections within the natural world,” explains Sarah. This love of the outdoors often brings Sarah and her family to our Escarpment region of Georgian Bay. “In the winter season, I love snowboarding at Blue Mountain, and the cross-country ski trails at Scenic Caves are amazing! In the summer months, I enjoy rock climbing at the Swamp in Kolopore, and growing up, I have spent a lot of time at my best friend’s cottage near Markdale.” Sarah’s husband is a Great Lakes surfer and embraces the challenges of the waves in and around Collingwood, the Blue Mountains, and the shores beyond. “The expansive skyline, sweeping pines, and rugged shoreline provide endless inspiration for painting. Several paintings, both for gallery and private commission, have been based on Georgian Bay. One of my favourites is titled ‘Georgian Bay Mermaid,’ and it seeks to provoke a sense of immersiveness within the water and Georgian Bay landscape.”

Sarah Carlson’s awards and distinctions are impressive—you’ll find the entire list on her website. She has been selected for numerous artist residencies in Canada, Spain, and Italy. She has several solo and group exhibitions to her credit, and her work is found in public and private collections in North America and Europe. Locally, she is represented by Muse Gallery, Toronto, and Cloud Gallery, Orillia.

Discover more at sarahcarlson.ca

Under Your Vibrant Sky, 48″ x 60″, acrylic on panel.