Artist Sally Bowring will exhibit her works at Reynolds Galley Nov. 4-Dec. 3. (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Though Sally Bowring has lived in the same home in Bellevue for the past 30 years, it was only recently that she began to focus on how the weather affected her surroundings during her daily walk with her dogs.
After walking, she would retreat to her studio to paint, inspired by the seasonal changes she observed — from the unusually lush greenery of a warm and rainy fall, to the blustery winds of spring, to the harsh, bleached-out heat of August. The year’s worth of paintings can be seen at Reynolds Gallery in “Weather Report 2016” from Nov. 4 through Dec. 3.
"IN THE PINK,” 48 by 96 inches, acrylic (Image courtesy Sally Bowring)
“I feel like this is very much the close of a body of work,” Bowring says. “I have never painted as consistently. I was in [the studio] four days a week. I saw it not as a job, but saw it as where I belong.”
Bowring has shown at Reynolds since 2000, and this is her first show there since the 2014 death of her friend, gallery director Bev Reynolds. “[Bev] knew how to get the best out of you,” Bowring says. “She was very much there with me as I created all this work.”
The paintings in “Weather Report” are luminous and loose, colorful and contemplative. “These paintings are about observation, but not in a direct way,” she says. “I just loved painting these. You get to a certain age, after making art for 40 years, where you get relaxed and have more fun. Hopefully, you’ll feel that exuberance when you look at them.”
Exuberance is something Bowring still feels in the studio, and in the classroom — she teaches painting at Virginia Commonwealth University — after all these years.
“I don’t have the right words for how wonderful it is to have a passion and be able to talk and teach about it,” she says. “I’m so grateful that so much has come together. Just to be able to paint is fabulous — and to have people care about it is icing on the cake.”
"DISLOCATION #18” (Image courtesy Fiona Ross)
Don't Miss: Dragana Crnjak and Fiona Ross at Page Bond Gallery. “Tactic Aligning: New Paintings by Dragana Crnjak” is based on Serbian monasteries Crnjak studied while on sabbatical this past year. With “Dislocation of a More Complete Pattern,” Ross uses ink and acrylic to create colorful paintings based on patterns of imperfections and spontaneity in the natural world. Nov. 4 though Dec. 3. 1625 W. Main St. pagebondgallery.com
