American painter, Sara Pittman is interested in the exploration of intuition and its relationship to space in her atmospheric, non-representational paintings. The artist’s desire to escape familiarity can be felt through her distinct, sfumato approach to painting in which she blends edges, softening shapes and marks to create movement that is dreamlike and mysterious.

Her paintings, which are often described as exuding an emotional aura, are recognizable for their ethereal quality and ability to draw the viewer in through the use of light and dimension. Symphonic yet deliberate shapes and colors collide with chaotic marks in what becomes a harmonious exchange between intention and instinct. Pittman describes this part of her process as a ‘bridge forming from a place of intuition to a moment of clarity’ and sees its relationship to the dialogue between the human desire for freedom and the need for control.

Through this juxtaposition her work transforms into a call and response exchange, and the painting takes on a narrative that is not so much revealing these personal explorations as it is hiding them. What results is a curious realm of compositional rhythms and brush work that pull the viewer in and out, almost like viewing an image slightly out of focus. While the paintings themselves feel fantastical, the artist provides poetic titles the brings us back to the concrete world. Pittman gifts us with work that is visually out of the ordinary, yet emotionally familiar.