Sarah Lacy

#hashtagartmag @smlacy #figurepainting #portraitpainting #contemporaryrealism

#statement Founded in contemporary realism, my intimate portraits and nudes explore the silent stories written on our skin and our bones, revealing our grace and humanity through oil paint and pencil.

#bio

Sarah Marie Lacy is a figure and portrait painter born in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. She has exhibited across Canada & Europe, most recently with a solo show, Un{fashion}able, at the Shenkman Arts Centre in Ottawa and was a part of the Go Wild! exhibit at Gormley’s Fine Art in Ireland. She received a Certificate of Excellence in the Portrait Society of America’s 2017 International Competition, placed first in The Artist Magazine’s 2017 Annual Competition in the figure/portrait category and was a finalist in the 2015 Kingston Prize for Portraiture and her work is included in the AOG Gallery collection. She attended Studio Escalier in France from 2011-2013. She is currently based in Canada’s capital city of Ottawa.

Often paintings come to me in bits and pieces. Usually I see the pose first, usually growing out of the way someone naturally moves or something about their personality which informs how they hold themselves. When I’m working with a model, it’s often a collaborative process where I ask them to find a pose that feels natural and comfortable. Other times, there will be something about their body that really captures my imagination and I’ll request a certain kind of pose and then we work together to find the version of it that feels natural to their body. Because my work is about the stories of my subject’s bodies, it’s really important to me that the pose be something that feels good and natural for them. There will be

#process

an AHA moment where my visual brain sees a combination of pose and light and colour and that’s where I start. Sometimes the rest of the painting is obvious to me from the get-go as well, but sometimes it might be months before the background reveals itself and I figure out what else the painting is trying to tell me. It’s an iterative process and I’m always following what the painting tells me it needs. From a technical standpoint, I always start with a colour study painted from life if it’s a painting and start the drawing if possible too. If I can have multiple sessions with a model, then some of the work will be done from life. Otherwise I take reference photos and complete the painting or drawing from those.

How true are you to your artist statement?

I see my artist statement as a reflection and mirror of the work that I’m making, as opposed to the statement being something that my work is either following or not following. As my vision evolves, my statement evolves along with it. It is an ever changing document that grows and expands and deepens as my own practice deepens. For me, the pictures come first and the words come later, as my own vision is revealed to me through its creation. I don’t always know what I’m

trying to say until I’ve finished saying it and then the words arrive and I can explain how all of the pieces fit together.

My artistic process is deeply non-verbal and I’ve learned to trust my subconscious to see patterns and themes that I might not consciously put together. My artist statement is a reflection of the patterns and themes that emerge in my work and as those themes emerge, my statement changes as well. Nothing about my creative process is static.

#concept

I create quiet, intimate paintings and drawings of people and their bodies. Trained in classical realism, my work uses light, shadow and grace to depict the stories that our bodies have to tell.

Like trees forming around foreign objects, our bodies grow, change and transform by the experiences we encounter. Our inner world and outer world both shape the bodies we have, etching our stories upon our skin and bones in barely perceivable tattoos, whispering the tales of our own personal folklore.

My own body has been through trauma, abuse, severe injury, chronic illness, pain, depression and anxiety: this has deeply shaped the body I have today, and the relationship that I have with it. My own experiences compel me to witness and share others’ stories as well as my own, to pull back the curtains and unveil our silent histories.

Because our tales lie hidden just under the surface of our skin, we often feel invisible in our struggles, isolated from those around us because we cannot easily see others’ experiences.

By revealing these stories visually, it’s easier to see how we all carry the same burdens, hurts and triumphs. By seeing the innate grace with which others carry their histories, it gives us permission to carry ours more proudly too.

This witnessing is a liberation, a sanction to feel at home in our own bodies and stories. It reminds us that we are not alone, that we need not be ashamed. By connecting with the honesty of another person’s body, we can more honestly and compassionately connect to ourselves and our own history, to see ourselves truthfully. To be truly seen is a benediction.