BY Miry Park | February 7, 2010

 Strong Pastel

Black creek is a pastel from a series by New York artist, Sarah Davis.  I fell in love with this piece the moment I saw it hanging in her studio in Soho.  Subsequently, my boyfriend ended up getting it for me as a Christmas gift this year.  It is one of the best presents I’ve ever received.  It is a lyrical, serene, and expressive landscape done in pastels on black paper.  Sarah uses blocks of color without blending to achieve precise shadow, light, depth, luminosity and perspective.  Almost reminiscent of a wood block, which speaks to my Asian sensibilities, this pieces has tonality that is deep and saturated and it exudes a dynamic quiet that feels huge.  I know there is quiet in those woods, with that creek…and yet, this quiet is so charged with LIFE.  Sarah describes this scenery as a place where nature reigns and renewal is possible.  And certainly, I sense this and in it, Sarah’s love of nature which makes my own relationship to it feel that much deeper.  For more information on Sarah Davis and her work, please visit her website:  http://www.sarahdavis.net.  She is also current involved in a show at the David Nolan Gallery in Chelsea, New York.