Sherry Palmersherryskye.com Artist’s Statement I paint because I need to. It is my most effective communication. I enjoy hours in one place—in the marshes, on the hill, by the shore—in solitude, responding in paint on canvas to the landscape in front of me. The large shapes, the lines of color running through tree clusters and into the sky, or currents on the surface of the water— these, and not the fine detail, interest me. Rarely do I include buildings or fences; when I do, it is when their scale fits the landscape. I never paint people. If this communication is heard, if someone sees through my eyes a special beauty in the land, I am pleased. I paint outside, on site. My subject is the landscape—the shore, islands, hills, and sky. I usually complete a painting in one sitting; on rare occasions I return to work on the same painting another day. More often, I return the next day and begin a new painting; after all, the tide is different, shapes, lines, and colors have all changed; and nature is presenting a completely new beauty for me to see. I return to the same location again and again, and begin to know it. I work from 2-9 hours; if I’m lucky it stays dry! The tide and weather change, and I keep responding to what I see. I have been in one place long enough to have the tide come back to where it was when I began; cloud formations often repeat themselves, as if trying to help. I can begin painting islands that are bright orange, like burning coals on a black sea; minutes later, the sea is orange and the islands are black. If I’m not pleased with the painting in the end, it is wiped away leaving a clean canvas for tomorrow. The day never seems wasted because I have painted; I have practiced my speech. In Scotland I found the perfect catalyst for how I enjoy painting: vast vistas uncluttered by poles or buildings, bold shapes, the “bones” of the land that in New England I could only see in winter when the leaves were gone. Theatrical light continually redefines the structure of the land. From one hillside “studio”, I can see ten islands, a mountain range of black rock, several shorelines, and a sky on its own worthy of a painting. Faced with so much, I am forced to simplify, and in this process, my painting voice becomes stronger. I focus on one small part: a hillside, vertical cliff, tree cluster, one white coral island; that’s all. This small part is enough for what I have to say in a painting, and in saying something about the small part, I find I say something about the whole. This Scottish island landscape helped make me a better painter; after a two-year residency, I returned to New England with new eyes. I began to focus, as I had in Scotland, on the small parts of a landscape. Like Cézanne, I have my Mont Sainte Victoire; in Scotland it is Ashaig, Ord’s coral island, and the headlands of Ullinish; here it is Mac’s Island in Great Bay and the pond near my house. The lily pads and flowers are my subject in summer, then the bright leaves floating on the surface of the water in autumn. I return to my Scotland shore every year to rekindle the lessons of my first journey and to continue to strengthen my voice. Sherry Palmer, 2009 Copyright © 2009Sherry Palmer. All rights reserved. statement resume paintings: skye the bay the pond links works in progress contact