Oil paint, ink, watercolor, pastel, collage, and fabric

My work begins outside in sites on the periphery of urban development, where people are a part of a complex ecosystem in a landscape in constant flux. I learn about what happens in a place seasonally through repeated visits to paint, draw, walk, and explore. I record my observations of people, water, plants, animals, the weather, and the position of the sun and moon. The paintings document my experience of the place as a refuge, and my bodily relationship to the landscape.

Works done on site are brought back to my studio, and inform paintings made from memory. As these paintings develop through layering and scraping into oil paint the physical experience of painting and remembering takes over. The paintings speak to the transformative aspect of spending time outside immersed in the natural world as well as the role we play within this landscape through preservation.

Sarah Norsworthy is an artist born in Anchorage, Alaska. She earned her B.A. in Studio Art at Dartmouth College in 2002 with a minor in English, and her MFA at University of Washington in Painting and Drawing in 2015. She currently lives in Seattle where she works as a seamstress/tailor, teaches art classes to adults with disabilities, and teaches drawing and painting at North Seattle College in Continuing Education. She is represented by studio e gallery in Seattle.

Sarah will be showing at Modern Glaze