Artist Elizabeth Sauder’s newest paintings, “Painting Rockbridge: Portraits of a Place,” will be featured for the month of July at Artists in Cahoots in Lexington. The opening reception is Friday, July 11, from 5 to 7 p.m.
Sauder is a familiar figure to folks who drive the back roads of Rockbridge County. She can be spotted in a pasture, in the lee of a barn, or even next to the road, standing in front of a field easel and painting in the shade of a large gray umbrella.
“I’ve been painting this landscape week-in and weekout for over 30 years,” said Sauder. “And even when I paint the same view from the same spot the results are radically different. I’m interested in exactly what color I’m seeing and that color is changed by so many variables - the weather, the season and time of day, and recently the smoke in the air from the wildfires in northwestern Canada. Light bounces around and reflects surprising colors onto the sides of barns and into shadows. The sun can hit a new metal roof generating shocking sparks of magenta, teal and lemon yellow. The sky is sometimes peach and sometimes a pale, sulfurous yellow. It’s all so interesting and astonishing. By simply standing still and looking I see an exquisite, brand-new world.
“The catch,” she added, “is capturing it in a painting.”
