Featured Artist Sandra Lamb

Enjoy Sandra Lamb’s fascinating portfolio of artwork, each with a story of it’s own. Be sure to visit her website for more.

 

 

For the most part, I am interested in “story”. I don’t think you can get away from the fact that art is communication and for me that means suggesting a line of thought. My figurative work almost always depicts a character in a “plot”, no matter how subtle or subjective.

 

 

They are most often at a crossroads or a turning point, suggesting something has already happened and changed the course of life, or something is about to happen and a decision must be made. Sometimes they are perched in-between; on the moment of what writers know as an “inciting incident”.

 

 

I consider a piece most successful when it becomes impossible to pass the image by without at least a question: “Why does she look so forlorn?”, “Where is she going?”, “What is he holding and where did it come from?” Every question invites the viewer to go deeper and find the story within the image. I have found that rarely do others have the same story about a work as I have, which is as it should be. When we all agree on a narrative, it becomes little more than illustration.

 

 

I often begin a piece because an idea or image has presented itself to me as something intriguing; I am asking my own questions. Sooner or later I figure out my personal interpretation. The title, which often reflects this, usually does not announce itself until I am well into the process, but it always offers a clue as to how I have learned from the event.

 

 

The title is the clue, but my own personal “take” on the piece is only posted on my website or adjacent to the original at an art show. A viewer can choose to read it or not. I think this preserves the mystery of it all and creates a more subjective experience.

 

 

In the past, I have worked in the graphic arts industry and I also produced a daily cartoon strip for years. I think both really show in my work: the realism and the linear development of an idea suggesting consecutive time. Occasionally I throw some humour into the mix.

 

 

Some of my work is surreal, but even in the more literal interpretations there is metaphor. That is not to say I do not appreciate beauty for beauty’s sake; landscapes show up every now and then but when that happens, as I paint, I find myself looking for nuances that create mood, atmosphere and a sense of “what’s next?” After all, beauty is only skin deep; everything else is in the eye of the beholder.

 

 

Sandra Lamb invites you to follow her on Facebook and visit Artists Reference where you will find many examples of her process under the “Tutorials” link. Sandra also offers thousands of photographs, free for use by artists.

 

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