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Sarah Whitecotton - Artist

Sarah Whitecotton

Learn more about Sarah Whitecotton from Albany, CA - United States.

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Joined

2010

Followers

5

Visitors

4,852

I have been an artist for over 40 years. I majored in painting at the University of Miami under the tutelage of Eugene Masson, a professor who encouraged me to continue my art and consider making it my career. In the late 1950’s I spent the summer in Oaxaca and Mexico City where I was exposed to the Mexican Muralists and Rufino Tamayo. Their deep, rich earth colors as well as Tamayo’s muted pinks and greens had a strong influence in my future work. In the 1960’s I married and raised two children while finishing my B.F.A. at the University of Oklahoma. I was painting large color fields in casein and also delved into etching and monoprints at the University during this time. I won several commendations in painting and one of the award winning works is now owned by the University Museum.

I moved to California in the late 1970's, very much in need of a change both in my personal life as well as in my painting. I rented studio space in Emeryville and Oakland and started working with acrylics while continuing with my printing. For a time I temporarily stopped painting and studied method acting at the Jean Shelton School of Acting, something I had always wanted to do. I was in several plays during the late 1980’s, but later was drawn back to my art and started working with the figure in context and landscapes of my surroundings. I trained myself to become left handed after fracturing my right wrist. My paintings became more controlled, patterned and detailed with many layers of paint. I experimented with collage using found objects, various papers and torn pieces of my discarded art work. My work was narrative in scope and remains so to this day. During this period the California Figurative painters were strong influences in my painting.

In the 1990’s I moved to Sebastopol, CA, where I was surrounded by redwoods, apple trees and an English country garden, all of which showed up in most of my paintings over the next ten years. I continued with collage and did my first painting inspired by a national disaster, “September 11, 2001.” The series continued with “Katrina” and a personal tragedy, the loss of my grandson in 2007.

During the past decade, 2000-2010, I have begun working with watercolors. Since 2002, I have spent part of the winter in Tucson, Arizona, where I go to various sites and work plein air, or sit in my patio painting scenes of the Catalina Mountains. The rest of the year, I spend hours in my studio in Albany, CA, working from sketches or images from places visited and my imagination.

My style is unique, with influences from Impressionists, mainly Matisse, the Fauve School of art, Mexican Muralists and the California Figurative Artists. My life is in my art.

My book, Sarah Whitecotton - Acrylics, Watercolors, Mixed Media - 1996-2010, is available for viewing and purchase:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1386120?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget

Sarah Whitecotton joined Fine Art America on September 9th, 2010.