Feature Articles

June Issue 1999

 

Pastel Landscapes by Deborah Squier at Mountains to the Sea

 

 

The Mountains to the Sea, gallery in Asheville, NC, will be showing Earth and Sky,works by Deborah Squier, from June 4 through July 5, 1999.

When you walk by a Deborah Squier pastel landscape, it pulls at you. Nay, it almost seems to poke out two feet from the canvas, like it was backlit by a powerful light source, or like it is a holographic projection.

Entering a corner with several Squier landscapes is like entering a concentrated zone of the colors and warmth of nature. Says Squier: "I believe art, like poetry, brings forth images that enable the viewer to savor an experience. It strikes at the core of being, changes the way we see things and calls us into communion with the life forces surrounding us. This is especially important in the pace of today's world which pushes us past the moment before we have a chance to assign it meaning. Paintings, like poetry, both draw us in and draw us out in a way that is magical. It is one of the ways we get to know who we are and how we feel."

Called by some a "sensate impressionist," Squier's command of light and atmosphere is what gives force to her pastels and lately, her oils. "Light is what enlivens form," says Squier. "Translating light variations in mass onto two dimensional paper is a goal of my art and gives it its luminosity." This power is at first most evident in her clouds. She is able to transform the sky's vapors into a mesmerizing, kaleidoscopic ingenue of a wonderland. It's as if we've never seen clouds until Squier lays it out into stark, unavoidable language. The celestial vault becomes a blatant display of subtlety, an explosion of quiet dignity and massive, impregnable fortresses muscling for position while at the same time soft as mist, inviting as a warm whirlpool and as transparent as a specter.

To own even a small Squier cloud painting is to possess a living portal to the sky which forces sky openness into a claustrophobic room. But its greatest value is that, after soaking in the Squier influence over time, when one steps out into the real sky one has learned that clouds have a miraculous beauty that is forever renewed, mystifying and beguiling. You're not only buying a Squier painting, you're purchasing a new outlook on life.

For further information check our NC Commercial Gallery listings or call the gallery at 828/236-2889.

Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer 427, Bonneau, SC 29431
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Copyright© 1999 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 1999 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.