I make paintings of women in the outdoors. With this subject matter I am looking at the complexities of this seemingly simple scenario. The same complexities women face when they want to take a walk, or explore a park. Risk complicates things and personal safety takes up space. I think about a woman’s survival as bound to nature's survival. I see visual examples of our reciprocal relationship to the environment in the way light is transformed as it passes through the landscape, revealing evidence of the surroundings by the way it strikes the figure. Women are often portrayed in idyllic natural scenes. My work challenges traditional associations of feminine beauty with nature and suggests our destructive instincts are equal to men's. In my paintings, nature is not a reflection or commentary on a woman’s appearance but exists interdependently as her habitat, shaping and being shaped by her presence.
In paintings like Portrait of a Young Woman, I subvert clichés by allowing light patterns to obscure the subject’s face, creating a portrait that is as much about the environment as the individual. My work merges the genres of landscape and figurative painting, viewing the figure as both a natural and an invasive presence. Contemporary objects are integrated into my compositions to explore our connection to the environment and the ways we prepare and protect ourselves from it. Plastic water bottles, associated with images of disaster relief while at the same time representing leisure and refreshment, often become subject matter in my paintings indicating the harms we inflict so casually. Another reoccurring object, the whistle, conjures for me the idea that we need an alarm to call for rescue, whether from being lost or from an attacker.
Historical and cultural references permeate my work, as in Cloud Formation, where inspiration from Andy Warhol’s Silver Clouds intertwines with ideas on shifting baselines and the female odalisque. In the painting Girl with Bottled Water, I share my thoughts on climate grief and the romanticized myth that being a woman excludes us from culpability with a wry nod to El Greco’s weeping saints. In “Prepared for Rain,” the crinkled plastic rain gear that frames the model’s face evokes a 17th-century ruff, blending historical reference with modern concerns.
While subject matter plays a significant role in my work, the handling of paint is equally important to me. The touch of the brush, the feel of the hand, the viscosity of the paint converge to create an image that begs the eye to slow down and linger as it consumes the image. The depth and variety of paint application, from the thin glaze to the impasto, is applied directly in oil, using wet-on-wet techniques creating a visceral sense of light and form that feels empirical yet maintains the paint’s physicality. This robust use of paint, coalesces into an almost photorealistic image when viewed from a distance. The tension between the perceived realism and the tactile, emotional nature of the paint itself creates for me endless possibilities for expression.
Sanders lives and works in Columbus, OH and maintains a studio in Long Island City, NY. She received her BFA from The Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, OH. She has presented her works in solo and group exhibitions at galleries and museums across the US. Recent exhibitions include: Her Habitat, Contemporary Art Matters, Columbus, OH; Here’s Looking at You, Plato Gallery, New York, NY; Rewilding, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; The Scenic Route, 1969 Gallery, New York, NY; Shape Of An Image, curated by Sasha Bogojev, Woaw Gallery, Hong Kong; Xenia: Crossroads in Portrait Painting, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY. Her work has been featured in New American Painting, Issues 77 and 149. She has been the recipient of numerous grants such as The Greater Columbus Arts Council’s Individual Artist Award and Ohio Arts Council’s Individual Excellence Award. She has been awarded artist residencies at the Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. Her work is included in many public and private collections including the Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH, The Scantland Family Collection, Columbus, OH, The Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, West Palm Beach, FL and The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH.