Beginning on Aug. 28 and running through Sept. 25, The Art Base will feature its latest exhibition, “A Sense of Place.”
This showcase is made up of the works of three local artists, Sam Harvey, Hunter Hogan and Sara Ransford, whose works will feature landscapes in their respective mediums, evoking the concept of “place.”
“Though each artist works from a unique perspective, the exhibition reveals the many ways place can be interpreted as something deeply personal and continually evolving — ‘A Sense of Place’ invites viewers to slow down and reflect on their own connections to the spaces they inhabit and the places that continue to shape and inspire them,” a press release from The Art Base reads.
Hogan, who will also be teaching “Plants, Printing & Paint” with The Art Base on Sept. 19, said she looks forward to sharing her gouache paintings with the community of The Roaring Fork Valley. Having been a resident of the area on and off since 1978, she draws inspiration for her work partly from the outdoors of Colorado and South Africa, where she recently returned after a three-month stay with her husband’s family, who originate from the area.
“Almost all of this show that’s coming up is from work that I did while I was in South Africa — the ideas I came up with in South Africa.” Hogan told The Sopris Sun. “It is a great place for me, not having the comfort zone of my studio to work in gouache and [trying] to think of new ways to layer my prints and painting.”
In the upcoming exhibition, Hogan said she looks forward to the juxtaposition of her works with those of her collaborators, with whom she shares an appreciation for the Roaring Fork Valley and other natural landscapes that evoke personal meaning.
“I’m excited about the show because our work is very different, but it’s all coming from living here and liking the natural world so much and just drawing on that and thinking about how things fit together,” Hogan said, “and that’s going to be an interesting combination of the three of us because our work is very different but similar.”
Her sentiments were echoed by Ransford, a clay and paper sculptor whose previous experience creating art in the valley includes a long history at Anderson Ranch Art Center, where she started as a student and eventually began teaching her own classes. Her work on display will reflect her appreciation for the landscapes she experienced during her lifetime as a participant in outdoor activities.
“Roughly 85% of my work is directly influenced by a place or space I’ve seen — often experienced as a climber, hiker or kayaker, which puts me in intimate physical contact with the landscape itself,” Ransford said. “Wherever I go, I’m drawn to some intriguing beauty I feel compelled to photograph, often shooting 30 or more images that may eventually evolve into a piece, through several rounds of drawing and revision.”
She hopes that her work, inspired by micro and macro landscapes shaped by water, captures the same creative character she sees.
“I would say the final piece I made, ‘Interrupted Flow,’ was by far the most challenging to create,” Ransford said. “My ceramic work is based on my drawings of photographs, and this particular drawing had been on my wall for a few years. I was unsure how to build the piece because of its complicated nature. I make decisions as I go, as I always do, but this one was far more complicated, since I was thinking about the nature of water, and our subconscious, where so much stays hidden, rippling under the surface.”
She continued, “Much of my work involves layering of elements that [aren’t] always evident at first glance; it takes some exploration to see the depth of the separate elements within the piece, much like our minds.”