THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 10, 1995 TAG: 9509070227
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 36 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Ellen Riddle
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
If one could paint a mind, Elizabeth City artist Margie Sawyer would be capable.
On display for six weeks at the Greenleaf Gallery in Nags Head are paintings by Sawyer that are highly intuitive, emotional and intellectual. What's surprising gallery hoppers about her exhibition is the stark difference in styles displayed.
Lining the center gallery walls are paintings both large and small, both representational and nonrepresentational. Most folks would categorize them as real and abstract.
Huge vases filled with flowers and an antique dish highlighting a colorful morning table setting are easily recognizable components. She moves her acrylics across the canvas as if they were oil paints. The strokes are fluid, the colors fresh.
But there's more to Sawyer as an artist than her delightful still lifes. Flanking each of those works is a collage filled with paint and cloth and objects so carefully integrated that there seems to be no stroke, color or texture that was not meticulously thought out.
But the collages don't originate from a conscious state. They come from a much deeper place in Sawyer's being, where planning any stroke would seem alien.
For five years now, Sawyer, 56, has retreated to Vermont in the fall to study for a three weeks at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson. There, Sawyer gets to work in private.
``Most of my abstracts come from there,'' said Sawyer. ``There's no interruptions. You can paint day and night. They prepare your meals. Visiting critics come in and critique your work.''
Master painters like Wolf Kahn and Gregory Eminoff have been on hand to discuss Sawyer's work with her.
The benefit of the seclusive atmosphere in part is that it allows an unhindered flow from Sawyer's unconscious that makes these sensitive works possible.
``It's so intense,'' Sawyer says of the Vermont experience. ``It's like a year in college that you do in three weeks. And it starts flowing and you have nothing else to think about. The atmosphere builds. I get so high.''
Originating from Johnson is an outstanding piece titled ``Johnson 93.'' The collage works both from across the room and inches from the canvas. The work has a three-dimensional quality due to the impasto technique applied. Thick paint and textures work harmoniously, as do color and composition.
What's amazing is how complex the piece is while maintaining a definite balance. It's as if each component takes turns at center stage, then quietly recedes for another to rise to the forefront. You fall in love with the deep, lush color that clearly shows a command that would have made Josef Albers, the expert on color relationships, proud.
Sawyer has also included works inspired by her visits to Greece. Evident in several paintings and collages are the natural colors of sand, sea and sky that she returned from Santorini Island with.
``I was actually in Vermont,'' she said, ``but the blues were still with me.''
She used oil stick to render the cliffs of Santorini and another landscape done from the villa she was staying in. Sawyer prefers to paint on location.
``I don't think you can get the energy if you don't,'' she said.
Her sand collages are also inspired by Greece.
Most of Sawyer's paintings and collages have many layers. In her still life work, she starts with a brush and draws a loose composition. She leaves part of the initial skeleton showing.
``I like to leave my mark,'' she said. Though many layers are eventually covered, Sawyer knows what lies beneath. ``I believe it comes through somehow, the glow of it,'' she said.
The glow of it. That's what Margie Sawyer is sharing with her audience at Greenleaf Gallery. A courageous showing of the conscious and unconscious mind. You're getting pure Sawyer, and that's pure art. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY ELLEN RIDDLE
Margie Sawyer has an exhibit of her paintings on display for six
weeks at the Greenleaf Gallery in Nags Head.
by CNB