For their forthcoming show at Blue Rain Gallery, Nature & Emotion: Sculpting the Elements, Painting the Light,painter Matthew Sievers and sculptor Bryce Pettit create quite the emotional journey for collectors. In addition, they celebrate movement, texture and light—“an homage to the wilderness and the wondrous,” says gallery marketing director, Leah Garcia.
Bryce Pettit, Kaleidoscope, bronze with patinas, large 4 x 5"; medium 2½ x 3"; small 1½ x 2"
Pettit shares that both he and Sievers use texture to convey emotion. “Hard and sharp lines create excitement or drama, and smoother edges and transitions to evoke peace or quietude,” says Pettit. “My ongoing goal with my art is to make you feel something. I am continually striving to refine this ability and create the connections that make us human.”
Sievers shares that, for his latest series of landscape paintings, he’s using many transparent layers to create atmosphere in addition to abstraction. “I want the viewer to be inspired with their own creativity as they look at my painting,” he says. “I’m using vague geometric shapes where you would expect an organic form, like a bush or the edge of a cloud, stacking them thinly over top of each other and shifting like a memory. These square cloud shapes, low on a horizon, can have the viewer imagining it being a distant hill or a plateau.”
Matthew Sievers, Mist and Light, oil on wood panel, 48 x 24"
Pettit presents several new pieces this year, revisiting subjects and concepts that he explored early in his career. “After 25 years as a sculptor, there are a few pieces that I did early on that I now feel I have the ability to better execute my intention for the subject,” he says. There will be several new bird sculptures, as well as new additions to Pettit’s wall-hanging sculpture series, including his butterfly display Kaleidoscope.
Matthew Sievers, Overflow, oil on wood panel, 48 x 72"
About his piece First Step, depicting a young deer, Pettit says, “When my children were young, we would go on walks in the wood together. On one such walk in spring, we came upon a newly born fawn lying in the grass. It stayed perfectly still while my children looked on in awe only inches apart. We quietly backed away after a moment, but the thrill of the encounter stayed with us. The magic of experiences like that are what inspire my work and are the first step in the inspiration for my sculptures.”
Bryce Pettit, First Step, bronze with patinas, ed. of 40, 18 x 16 x 8"
As for Sievers’ pieces, like Mist in Light and Overflow, the artist is inspired by moments in nature with his family. “[It’s about] getting away from the busy day-to-day and having a peaceful moment as we talk to the person closest to us about our hopes, dreams and troubles,” he says. “It’s a mindset that I’m often in as I paint my landscapes—imagining a walk with one of my boys as we find growth and change. Learning to accept ourselves and then seeing a gorgeous sunset as we sit in silence. So many of my paintings are inspired by the memories that I have made with my family and the emotions that I have felt—emotions worth conveying to my collectors.
The show opens with an artist’s reception at Blue Rain Gallery’s Santa Fe, New Mexico, location on April 25, from 5 to 7 p.m., and continues through May 6. —
Blue Rain Gallery 544 S. Guadalupe Street • Santa Fe, NM 87501 • (505) 954-9902 • www.blueraingallery.com
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