Even when she was still drawing stick figures with crayons, Megan Seiter was preoccupied with creating pictures that were as true to life as possible. Proof that practice makes perfect is on full display in Efflorescence, an upcoming solo exhibition at Meyer Gallery in Santa Fe, from December 1 through 14.

Grace, colored pencil and pastel, 18 x 13"

“Being able to translate what you see onto 2D paper and having the image you’ve drawn pop off the paper as if it’s 3D is an amazing feeling,” says Seiter. “When you finally get to the point where you’ve achieved some level of realism, the sense of accomplishment and elation is unlike any other for me. I’ve taken what I see through my fingers and my mind and translated onto this piece of paper—that’s why I love realism.” Seiter works in colored pencil and watercolor to achieve the fine details of her subjects—like the exquisite floral veins in Pema—and pastel for her minimalistic backgrounds saturated in gradations of whites and grays to the inkiest of blacks.

Seiter picked up colored pencil while in art school in 2008, at a time when the medium wasn’t generally associated with fine art. Finding her instructor somewhat at a loss when it came to the technical aspects of using pencil, Seiter embarked on a journey of trial and error until she found the right paper and pressure to employ and, in doing so, developed her own technique.

Pema, colored pencil and pastel, 24 x 11"

Despite people’s encouragement to “go big and do oils,” Seiter stuck with the medium. “Pencil allows for so much precision and color and vibrancy,” she says. “That’s the juicy part for me.”

Seiter started out as figurative artist, but shifted to still lifes when she experienced the creative satisfaction she got from the genre's own unique challenges and the control it afforded. However, the many years she spent focused on the human figure, and her abiding passion for the genre, inform her florals and botanicals.

“I’m trying to take an inanimate object and give it the same level and care that I would give a figure or face,” she says. “They are so individual and almost charismatic in a way. There’s a simplicity to the drawings, but the closer you get the more detail and color you can see. There’s a stillness to them, but they’re filled with so much energy and are always changing, ever so slowly.”

In her latest work, Seiter has incorporated her affinity for the human figure into her still lifes in a more literal fashion, in the form of figurative ceramic vases.

Apples, colored pencil and pastel, 9 x 9"

Seiter finds many of her floral inspirations at the San Francisco Flower Market, where area farmers sell directly to the city’s florists. “There is every single color and texture you can imagine,” she says. One of her favorite varieties is hellebore, whose deep purple petals she captures in all of their velvety richness in pieces like Athena and Grace.

Perfecting floral compositions can be a race against time, so when the hellebore branch in Grace began to droop, Seiter tied it with twine and, once she achieved the graceful bend she was looking for, affixed  the other end to the ceiling.

“I didn’t know what it was going to be until I did that,” she says. “She is so graceful and silent and strong.”

There was another surprise in store while working on this latest body of work. Seiter’s intention for this show was to create bold, bright and vibrant pieces, but while placing different matte boards behind her subjects awash in natural light, nothing was working.

“When I started using black matte boards, the subject would just sing,” she says. “The flowers emerging from the darkness was just so beautiful.”

Oceanic, colored pencil and pastel, 24 x 24"

For Oceanic, she learned that a lily could be coaxed into a circle, a universal symbol with many meanings. On a personal level, Seiter shares she was going through a difficult time and the contrast between the ethereal beauty of the flower suspended in the black void was reassuring during a difficult time. “[It was a reminder that] you can see beauty in the dark if you look for it, and that past suffering is growth.

“I never meant to be a colored pencilist—I just fell in love with it and never looked back,” she says. “As far as the flowers go, I’m so in love with them. I wouldn’t call myself a botanical artist, I’m just in a botanical phase of my art—and I’m going to ride that train until it stops inspiring me.”

Efflorescence opens with a reception on December 1 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Meyer Gallery in Santa Fe. —

Meyer Gallery 225 Canyon Road, Suite 14 • Santa Fe, NM 87501• (505) 983-1434 • www.meyergalleries.com 

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