Artist – Painter

Professional Overview:

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Awards include the Basil H. Alkazzi Award For Excellence in Painting in 2012 and a commission from MTA, Arts for Transit, completed in 2012. Sears' work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at the Hudson River Museum (Yonkers, NY), Kenise Barnes Fine Art (Larchmont, NY), Metaphor Contemporary Art (Brooklyn, NY), Joyce Goldstein Gallery (Chatham, NY), Ruth Siegel Gallery (New York, NY), Anderson Gallery (Richmond, VA), and Richmond Artist's Workshop (Richmond, VA) and a two person exhibition at Tria Gallery (NYC - Chelsea). Group exhibitions include exhibitions at Lehman College Art Gallery (Bronx, NY), Sirona Fine Art (Hallandale Beach, FL), ROCA (Nyack, NY), Central Booking (Brooklyn, NY), Art Gate Gallery (New York, NY), Art in Embassies Program, U.S. Department of State, Tel Aviv, Israel from 2006-08, multiple shows at Metaphor Contemporary Art (Brooklyn, NY), Wave Hill Glyndor Gallery (Bronx, NY), Joyce Goldstein Gallery (Chatham, NY), Edward Hopper House (Nyack, NY), Kenise Barnes Fine Art (Larchmont, NY), The Gallery at Pfizer Learning Center (Rye Brook, NY), Bergen Museum of Art and Science (Paramus, N.J.), Marymount Manhattan Gallery (New York City), Ruth Siegel Gallery (New York, NY), Churchman Fehsenfeld Gallery (Indianapolis, ID), Herron Gallery (Indianapolis, ID), Virginia Museum of Fine Art (Richmond, VA), Fayerweather Gallery (Charlottesville, VA), and A.R.T.S. Gallery (New York, NY). In addition to being awarded the Basil Alkazzi Award for Excellence in Painting, Sears has been a three time recipient of a fellowship from Virginia Center for the Arts (VCCA) and her work is in the collections of the Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ, Bank of America, Sidney and Frances Lewis of Richmond, VA, American Telephone and Telegraphy, IL, NYU Langone Medical Center, NY and numerous private collections. Sears lived and worked in Brooklyn, NY from 1985 to 2021. In 2021 she moved her studio and home to the Northern Neck of Virginia and the town of White Stone where she continues to make paintings.

Artist Statement:

I have always been awed and inspired by the mystery and amorality of nature. My paintings deal with carefully selected subjects from my observations, visions, and experiences with the natural world. Subjects include, creatures living and dead, birds, butterflies, insects, and mammals along with a selection of natural objects and elements - these all have become part of the scenes that haunt my thoughts and make up the images I create. I investigate the kinship between my envisioned nature and its inhabitants and their physical and spiritual machinations and intrigues. I see the natural world filled with both unconscious and symbolic rituals and phenomena. My paintings are meant to give insight into this often unseen world and a heightened awareness that challenges our assumptions about the world around us. The images in my paintings are surreal, yet firmly based in naturalism. The flora and fauna described in my paintings create a liaison between our natural world and our human world and imply a kinship to the human experience.

Technique:

I paint with thin oil glazes, directly applied, layer upon layer onto a stretched linen ground. Even though the oil glazing method is a slow and sometimes tedious process, I have found this technique to be a good way to work as it allows me to effectively translate my subjects and physically construct and layer the elements in my paintings, adjusting and building the images, giving veracity to what might otherwise be conceived of as unbelievable content. Oil glazing tends to create a mirror-like surface that can produce a luminous depth and at the same time shows the history of the making in the surface of the painting - a plastic effect that allows a painting to engage the viewer in an abstract and formal way upon close inspection.