Titled New Visions, the latest duo exhibition at Gallery Los Olivos showcases several nature-based landscapes by artists Sheryl Knight and Britt Friedman. Waterfalls and other water-centric scenes are the subjects found in most of the show’s featured paintings. With the new year only a month in, why not ring in the roaring 2020s with some roaring rapids?
“New year, new decade, new work, new inspiration—I think these thoughts all went into the title chosen,” Knight told the Sun.
Probably best known locally for her vibrant vineyard paintings, Knight will be showcasing landscapes of a different nature in New Visions—most of which depict areas in either the Eastern or Western Sierras. Although the show will include a couple of her traditional vineyard pieces as well, the Central Coast-based artist said.
But one specific element that ties most of Knight and Friedman’s paintings together is the running water theme, as both artists’ landscapes depict areas surrounding it, whether it be a lake or ocean.
“My personal two favorites right now are the two waterfall paintings that will be in the show,” Knight said.
One of the paintings Knight referred to is of Mist Falls in Kings Canyon National Park, while the second depicts Rock Creek in Inyo National Forest.
For Friedman, water-based locales often become her subjects, simply because they’re the places she loves traveling to.
“Many of my paintings include water in its many forms,” the Swedish-American artist told the Sun. “My favorite spots include the sea coast, the Eastern Sierras, and sites in Santa Barbara County.”
Friedman moved to Santa Barbara in 2011, and New Visions marks her debut showcase at Gallery Los Olivos. Although all of her new works in the Los Olivos show are oil landscapes, Friedman is also an accomplished photographer and fiber and mixed-media artist. Her works have gained international recognition over the years, with displays in both public and private collections throughout the U.S. and Europe.
As for her landscapes, most are painted from photographs she had taken during hikes and other outdoor adventures, Friedman said, while her plein air studies are created on site.
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“Immersion in nature provides an important source of harmony and solace,” Friedman said. “I try to draw out the essence of a scene—a true, but created, beauty—in a process that involves eye, mind, hand, and heart.”
Aside from exemplifying nature’s beauty in her landscapes, Friedman also tries to communicate the joy she had felt on each outing, she added while describing one of her featured paintings.
“They remind me of particularly beautiful days and places. Sierra Lakeside evokes an outstanding day hiking around a lake in the Eastern Sierra, near Yosemite,” Friedman said. “After a strenuous climb, I looked down and saw the long shadow of a pine stretching across the clear turquoise water and knew I had found a subject.”
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood needs to drink more water and less Sierra Mist. Reach him at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 6-13, 2020.