My paintings are memoirs of my experiences with nature. Through painting I participate in the landscape, recognize transcendent moments in nature, honor the integrity of natural forms, and describe where my heart lives. I often feel as if the places I paint have commissioned me to tell their autobiographies, at the same time that I tell my own.
I was born in Bar Harbor, Maine, grew up even farther downeast in Addison, a small town in Washington County, and now live and work in the midcoast region. I make my living as a painter and as a seller of used and rare books.
I paint directly from nature and in my home studio. Some of my recent work is part of an ongoing series entitled Home Truth, about hometowns and the themes of time, memory, and homecoming. I also have several other bodies of work in progress, including a long-term series called Autobiography of an Island, about Bear Island in Penobscot Bay, where I spend time painting each year in June. I love the intertidal zone and long views out to open ocean, and with that in mind, I've been painting a lot on the Schoodic peninsula. In the past four years I have also been painting and drawing inland, investigating particular Maine rivers and lakes in an ongoing study of how water moves through and shapes the landscape. The mountains and deep woods seem like another kind of ocean. No matter where I'm working I paint the places I love, and the shapes, moments, and situations within those places I find beautiful and haunting. My main goal in painting is feeling at home in nature.
I love to work in places of integrity, with minimal human-made stuff in evidence, places that haven’t changed much since some of my heroes painted there too. The natural energy and sublime beauty that motivated them is still present, and motivates me in turn. It’s all around and I find it intensely satisfying.
I paint directly from nature and in my home studio. Some of my recent work is part of an ongoing series entitled Home Truth, about hometowns and the themes of time, memory, and homecoming. I also have several other bodies of work in progress, including a long-term series called Autobiography of an Island, about Bear Island in Penobscot Bay, where I spend time painting each year in June. I love the intertidal zone and long views out to open ocean, and with that in mind, I've been painting a lot on the Schoodic peninsula. In the past four years I have also been painting and drawing inland, investigating particular Maine rivers and lakes in an ongoing study of how water moves through and shapes the landscape. The mountains and deep woods seem like another kind of ocean. No matter where I'm working I paint the places I love, and the shapes, moments, and situations within those places I find beautiful and haunting. My main goal in painting is feeling at home in nature.
I love to work in places of integrity, with minimal human-made stuff in evidence, places that haven’t changed much since some of my heroes painted there too. The natural energy and sublime beauty that motivated them is still present, and motivates me in turn. It’s all around and I find it intensely satisfying.
cloud bank, view of bear island from great spruce head island, maine - oil/linen, 8" x 24", 2018
copyright 2022 sarah faragher, all rights reserved
