Eve Sexton

Author/Artist Name

Eve SextonFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Junior

Date of Creation

Spring 5-9-2024

Artist Statement

In my personal landscape art, there is a focus on nature, family and nostalgia. Combining those elements usually allows thoughts to percolate of times in life where people feel most akin with nature. I feel there is peacefulness in nature, as well as the fact that it is something that has been around for eons, provokes thoughts of mankind’s place and progression in the world. There is an order and a system that things just instinctively follow in nature, life and death is so common and unavoided. Things grow, they die back, they come up again when the time is right. That connection winds itself into the lives of people as well. When one person or connection fades, there are several others that are still there, and many more to come. By exploring natural elements that people find familiar, but with figures interacting with them, I explore a continued narrative of human connection with natural elements.

Memories can connect places with people and even objects. My memories imbue life into those spaces people remember, both permanent and temporary. There is something about inviting the viewer into the space that is being remembered that offers a personal insight into those past memories. Inviting viewers into the memories of one specific person-myself- prompts them to think of their own memories, especially those that concern the same subject matter- nature and people. Memories take up a lot of space in the brain, and are used to inform everyday decisions and feelings. These memories interact with each other through layers upon layers. Time spent over and over again in familiar places builds the layers of connection between memories of people and places. Oil paint helps exemplify those layers in a literal sense. By actually painting a figure over a landscape, the two are more coherently visually connected.

The figural element plays an important role in my memories, for the most part. People’s faces, actions, expressions, and interaction with ourselves and others helps form those memories of them, as well as places they inhabit. The use of unconventional colors in portraiture- the same greens or yellows or browns that are found in natural or homely environments- add the context of the influence of that natural setting, while still allowing these people who are important to me to be rendered with full values. I am influenced by Heather Horton when I render faces. The brushwork she uses, as well as the earthtone color palette are big inspirations. There is an emphasis on the placement of the face in a place. Considering how a portrait interacts with all the other elements surrounding it, one can gain a better understanding of how exactly that person may behave in an actual setting besides a 2-d representation. In surrealist portraiture, like what Jennifer Coates seems to have done, having a face detached from its body can offer a haunting aura. I am inspired by her incorporation of the face, especially making the features and placement ambiguous. Still, I hope, with the right lighting and background and attention to detail, the more mindful meaning of seeing these faces in these impactful places will still come through.

Contemporary influences:

Heather Horton:

Heather Horton has sophisticated rendering of line and texture in objects and has a painterly, blended style I’d like to emulate.

Jennifer Coates:

I’m drawn to Coates because of her thematic work. She includes figural elements in a vaguely similar way to what I have been doing. I am interested in how she uses non-local color, and has so much contrast in her work.

Erin Hanson:

Erin Hanson's work has a compelling use of strong light sources as well as saturated color. I am drawn to the way that she blocks in colors as shapes, and how she doesn’t shy away from texture.

Advisor/Mentor

T Mike Martin, Jessica Fife

Description

While I have a focus in painting, I have included work from various other classes I have taken at Murray State University. I have experience with watercolor, graphite and colored pencil drawing, bookbinding, and oil pastel. 11 works in this collection are oil paintings, 6 include watercolor, 8 include colored pencil, and one includes oil pastel. I am drawn to natural elements, so there is a big focus on those elements and themes in the majority of my work. I am drawn to lighting that enhances all the wonderful colors to be found in these moments of nature, and I try to draw attention to those details in any medium or with any subject matter.

Photo Credit

All pictures by me.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Sexton, Eve, "Eve Sexton" (2024). Professional Practices (ART 399). 158.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art399/158